Manufacturing information and troubleshooting system and method

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for providing alarming indications and troubleshooting indications and actions in connection with a web converting manufacturing process such as that used for manufacturing disposable absorbent garments. Some of the disclosed embodiments include relating inspection data, such as product (or process) attribute data, to data from other manufacturing-related systems. Also disclosed are systems and methods for linking product (or process) attribute data obtained during the manufacturing process with one or more data sources including raw material data, process setting data, product quality data, and/or productivity data. Also disclosed are systems and methods for identifying manufacturing set point changes and automatically implementing such changes and automated web steering changes based on data from one or more inspection systems.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] The invention of the present application is related to and claimspriority to provisional U.S. patent application serial No. 60/401,805,entitled INFORMATION EXCHANGE, filed on Aug. 7, 2002, the entiredisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates generally to systems and methodsassociated with inspecting composite products produced using one or moreweb converting manufacturing processes. More particularly, the inventionrelates to systems and methods for processing manufacturing relatedinformation, including inspection information, to identify logicalalarming and troubleshooting indications.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Articles such as disposable absorbent garments have numerousapplications including diapers, training pants, feminine care products,and adult incontinence products. A typical disposable absorbent garmentis formed as a composite structure including an absorbent assemblydisposed between a liquid permeable bodyside liner and a liquidimpermeable outer cover. These components can be combined with othermaterials and features such as elastic materials and containmentstructures to form a product which is specifically suited to itsintended purposes. A number of such garments include fasteningcomponents which are intended to be connected together (e.g.,pre-fastened) during manufacture of the garment so that the product ispackaged in its fully assembled form.

[0004] For example, one such pre-fastened garment includes child'straining pants, which have a central absorbent chassis and front andback side panels extending laterally out from the chassis adjacentlongitudinally opposite ends thereof. A portion of each of the front andback side panels has a respective fastening component disposed thereon.During manufacture of the training pants, the central absorbent chassisis initially formed generally flat and then folded over so that thefront and back side panels face each other. The respective fasteningcomponents of the front and back side panels are then aligned andconnected together to define an engagement seam. Upon securing the frontand back side panel fastening components together, the pre-fastened pairof training pants is in its fully assembled three-dimensional formhaving an interior space bounded in part by the engagement seam.

[0005] For a variety of purposes, including quality control, processcontrol, material control, and so on, it is often desirable to monitorthe presence of and/or interrelationships between one or more elementsof a disposable absorbent garment. For instance, elements such as outercovers, liners, absorbent pads, side panels, elastic components,fastener components, etc. must be positioned or aligned with respect toeach other and/or to other components as desired or otherwise intendedin order to produce an acceptable product. Accordingly, inspectionsystems are commonly used to detect the presence and/or relativepositions of such components during manufacturing. If an inspectionsystem determines that one or more components are out of position andthus do not properly register with other components, the inspectionsystem typically outputs one or more signals indicating that certainarticles should be culled and discarded, that the process should beadjusted so as to bring out-of-position components into proper position,that the process should be adjusted so that subsequent components arebrought into proper registration with one another, and so on.

[0006] One such registration inspection system is disclosed in U.S. Pat.No. 5,359,525, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference. As described therein, registration inspection of a compositeproduct during fabrication is accomplished by producing an image of thearticle and then analyzing the image to detect the relative positions ofone or more components. The detected positions are then compared todesired positions to thereby determine whether one or more componentsare improperly positioned. Such registration inspection systems employconventional video cameras for capturing visible, ultraviolet, x-ray,and infrared light reflected by and/or transmitted through components ofthe product in order to produce still video images of such components.Thus, after producing a video image of a composite article and itsseveral components, the image can be analyzed to determine whether thecomponents are properly positioned and registered with one another.

[0007] Although highly useful for many applications, there is a need fora higher order level of inspection and control that provides advantageswith respect to the inspection, analysis and control of high speed webconverting processes associated with manufacturing products having tightquality tolerances. Such products include, for example, certain productshaving engagement seams formed by connecting two elements together suchthat the engagement seam is essentially two layers. For example,engagement seams formed by connected side panels of the training pantsdescribed previously has heretofore entailed connecting the side panelsin face-to-face relationships with outer edges of the side panelsaligned with each other. To inspect such an engagement seam, it wasnecessary only to inspect the exposed outer edges of the side panels sothat there was no need to actually capture an image of any underlyingelements or edges of the training pants. More recent engagement seams,however, are formed by connecting the side panels in overlappingrelationship so that the outer edge of one side panel underlies theother side panel at the engagement seam. Still referring to theengagement seam example, arriving at a finished state of properlyengaged side seams requires a precise final positioning of the edges ofthe fastening system components on the side panels. Such a level ofcontrol can be accomplished through a cascaded process control ofmultiple (e.g., up to seven in one example) dependent productgeometrical relationships that can be affected by material, processsettings, process set points, transient conditions, and so on.

[0008] It is desirable to capture an image of the underlying panel atthe engagement seam to determine the position and relative alignment ofthe outer edge of the underlying panel. Because the light emittingsource and camera of the inspection system described in U.S. Pat. No.5,359,525 are positioned exterior of the inspected component, it isdifficult to inspect the outer edge of an underlying panel of the morerecent engagement seams once the panels are connected. For example, itis difficult to lay the engagement seam flat over the light emittingsource of the disclosed inspection system, thereby increasing the riskthat the image captured by the camera will appear fuzzy. Moreover, it isdifficult for the visible or ultraviolet light to pass through orreflect from the underlying layer of the multiple layers present at suchan engagement seam.

[0009] Moreover, prior art systems for inspecting composite articles,such as, for example, disposable absorbent garments, do not integrateand relate data from multiple inspection stations to prioritizenecessary or desirable automatic control actions, trouble-shootingactions/recommendations, operator alarming, and so on.

[0010] Further, prior art systems for inspecting composite articles,such as disposable absorbent garments, did not integrate and relateinformation/data from multiple inspections systems with information fromother information systems associated with a manufacturing process. Forexample, database systems have been employed for collectingwaste/delay/productivity information, raw material information, manuallyentered quality information (e.g., from manual inspections of selecteditems), and machine process information. In fabricating articles such asdiapers and training pants, such information includes productivityassociated with a particular production run, various attributes of theraw materials used, process control settings (e.g., vacuum settings,machine set points, conveyor steering commands, and so on), and thelike. Such prior art information, however, has not been correlated toinspection information so that improvements can be made, for example, tofurther reduce cost and waste, and to increase productivity and quality.

[0011] Improvements are also desired with respect to information systemsassociated with web converting processes. For example, web convertingmanufacturing processes often use multiple station devices, with eachstation performing a substantially similar function. Prior artinformation systems do not adequately isolate and exploit inspectiondata associated with a particular station of such multiple stationdevices. It has been known to use simple photoeye detectors to detectwhether a side panel placed by a multiple station device was present onthe absorbent article constructed using that device. Identifying andexploiting additional aspects of multiple station devices, however, isdesirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0012] In one form, the invention comprises an automatic troubleshootingsystem, suitable for use in connection with a high speed web convertingmanufacturing process having at least one machine operating at a setpoint and producing a composite article from a sequential addition ofcomponent parts during a production run of composite articles. A firstinspection system automatically inspects a first aspect of a compositearticle being produced during the production run, the first inspectionsystem providing via a communication network a first inspectionparameter indicative of a characteristic of the first aspect. A secondinspection system automatically inspects a second aspect of thecomposite article, the second inspection system providing a secondinspection parameter via the communication network indicative of acharacteristic of the second aspect. The logic system obtains via thecommunication network a plurality of the first inspection parameters,each corresponding to one of a plurality of composite articles producedduring the production run, and obtains a plurality of the secondinspection parameters, each corresponding to one of the plurality ofcomposite articles, the logic system determining a first mathematicalcharacteristic associated with the obtained plurality of firstinspection parameters and a second mathematical characteristicassociated the obtained plurality of second inspection parameters, thelogic system determining a corrective action in response to the firstand second mathematical characteristics.

[0013] In another form, the invention is a method of automaticallytroubleshooting a machine, suitable for use in connection with a highspeed web converting manufacturing process having at least one machineoperating at a set point and producing a composite product from asequential addition of component parts during a production run ofcomposite products, the method comprising:

[0014] inspecting a first aspect of a composite product constructedusing the high speed web converting process and being produced duringthe production run;

[0015] providing a first inspection parameter being indicative of acharacteristic of the first aspect of the composite product;

[0016] inspecting a second aspect of the composite product beingproduced during the production run;

[0017] providing a second inspection parameter being indicative of thesecond aspect of the composite product;

[0018] obtaining a plurality of the first inspection parameters, eachone of the obtained plurality of first inspection parameterscorresponding to one of a plurality of composite products producedduring the production run;

[0019] determining a first mathematical characteristic associated withthe obtained plurality of the first inspection parameters;

[0020] obtaining a plurality of the second inspection parameters, eachone of the obtained plurality of second inspection parameterscorresponding to one of a plurality of composite products producedduring the production run;

[0021] determining a second mathematical characteristic associated withthe obtained plurality of the second inspection parameters; and

[0022] determining a corrective action associated with the at least onemachine in response to the determined first and second mathematicalcharacteristics.

[0023] In another form, the invention is method for providing atroubleshooting response for a manufacturing process, the method beingsuitable for use in connection with a web converting manufacturingprocess producing a composite product from a sequential addition ofcomponent parts during a production run of composite products, themethod comprising:

[0024] automatically inspecting at a first aspect of a composite productbeing produced during the production run to determine a componentattribute of the first aspect;

[0025] automatically determining a machine setting of a machineassociated with the web converting process at the first time;

[0026] identifying a relationship between the component attribute of thefirst aspect and the machine setting; and

[0027] identifying a troubleshooting action based on the identifiedrelationship between the component attribute of the first aspect and themachine setting.

[0028] Definitions

[0029] Within the context of this specification, each term or phrasebelow will include, but will not be considered necessarily limited to,the following meaning or meanings.

[0030] “Bonded” comprises the joining, adhering, connecting, attaching,or the like, of two elements. Two elements will be considered to bebonded together when they are bonded directly to one another orindirectly to one another, such as when each is directly bonded tointermediate elements.

[0031] “Connected” comprises the joining, adhering, bonding, attaching,or the like, of two elements. Two elements will be considered to beconnected together when they are connected directly to one another orindirectly to one another, such as when each is directly connected tointermediate elements.

[0032] “Culled” articles includes articles that are discarded during themanufacturing process, prior to being packaged. For example, an articlemay be culled if an inspector identifies an unacceptable nonconformingcharacteristic. An article may be culled before its construction hasbeen completed.

[0033] “Disposable” comprises articles which are designed to bediscarded after a limited use rather than being laundered or otherwiserestored for reuse.

[0034] “Disposed,” “disposed on,” and variations thereof are intended toinclude that one element can be integral with another element, or thatone element can be a separate structure bonded to or placed with orplaced near another element.

[0035] “Elastic,” “elasticized” and “elasticity” include that propertyof a material or composite by virtue of which it tends to recover itsoriginal size and shape after removal of a force causing a deformation.

[0036] “Elastomeric” comprises a material or composite which can beelongated by at least 25 percent of its relaxed length and which willrecover, upon release of the applied force, at least 10 percent of itselongation. It is generally preferred that the elastomeric material orcomposite be capable of being elongated by at least 100 percent, morepreferably by at least 300 percent, of its relaxed length and recover,upon release of an applied force, at least 50 percent of its elongation.

[0037] “Endseal” is an edge of two or more panels that are joinedtogether by adhesive or other means. In the context of an absorbentarticle, a front end seal includes a front distal edge of an absorbentpanel and a distal edge of a right front elastic side panel and/or afront distal edge of an absorbent panel and a distal edge of a leftfront elastic side panel. In the context of an absorbent article, a rearend seal includes a rear distal edge of an absorbent panel and a distaledge of a right rear elastic side panel and/or a rear distal edge of anabsorbent panel and a distal edge of a left rear elastic side panel.

[0038] “Fabrics” is used to include all of the woven, knitted andnonwoven fibrous webs.

[0039] “Flexible” comprises materials which are compliant and which willreadily conform to the general shape and contours of the wearer's body.

[0040] “Force” includes a physical influence exerted by one body onanother which produces acceleration of bodies that are free to move anddeformation of bodies that are not free to move. Force is expressed ingrams per unit area.

[0041] “Graphic” comprises any design, pattern, or the like that isvisible on an absorbent article.

[0042] “Hydrophilic” comprises fibers or the surfaces of fibers whichare wetted by the aqueous liquids in contact with the fibers. The degreeof wetting of the materials can, in turn, be described in terms of thecontact angles and the surface tensions of the liquids and materialsinvolved. Equipment and techniques suitable for measuring thewettability of particular fiber materials or blends of fiber materialscan be provided by a Cahn SFA-222 Surface Force Analyzer System, or asubstantially equivalent system. When measured with this system, fibershaving contact angles less than 90° are designated “wettable” orhydrophilic, while fibers having contact angles greater than 90° aredesignated “nonwettable” or hydrophobic.

[0043] “Integral” comprises various portions of a single unitary elementrather than separate structures bonded to or placed with or placed nearone another.

[0044] “Inward” and “outward” comprise positions relative to the centerof an absorbent article, and particularly transversely and/orlongitudinally closer to or away from the longitudinal and transversecenter of the absorbent article.

[0045] “Layer” when used in the singular can have the dual meaning of asingle element or a plurality of elements.

[0046] “Liquid impermeable”, when used in describing a layer ormulti-layer laminate, includes that a liquid, such as urine, will notpass through the layer or laminate, under ordinary use conditions, in adirection generally perpendicular to the plane of the layer or laminateat the point of liquid contact. Liquid, or urine, may spread or betransported parallel to the plane of the liquid impermeable layer orlaminate, but this is not considered to be within the meaning of “liquidimpermeable” when used herein.

[0047] “Longitudinal” and “transverse” comprise their customary meaning.The longitudinal axis lies in the plane of the garment and is generallyparallel to a vertical plane that bisects a standing wearer into leftand right body halves when the article is worn. The transverse axis liesin the plane of the article generally perpendicular to the longitudinalaxis. The garment as illustrated is longer in the longitudinal directionthan in the transverse direction.

[0048] “Mathematical characteristic” includes determinations made bymathematical manipulation, as well as statistical determinations,manipulations and assessments of variability of data sets such as, forexample, a range or indication of a range of values within a data set, avariance, or a coefficient of variance.

[0049] “Member” when used in the singular can comprise the dual meaningof a single element or a plurality of elements.

[0050] “Nonwoven” and “nonwoven web” comprise materials and webs ofmaterial which are formed without the aid of a textile weaving orknitting process. “Operatively joined,” with reference to the attachmentof an elastic member to another element, includes that the elasticmember when attached to or connected to the element, or treated withheat or chemicals, by stretching, or the like, gives the element elasticproperties; and with reference to the attachment of a non-elastic memberto another element, means that the member and element can be attached inany suitable manner that permits or allows them to perform the intendedor described function of the joinder. The joining, attaching, connectingor the like can be either directly, such as joining either memberdirectly to an element, or can be indirectly by means of another memberdisposed between the first member and the first element.

[0051] “Outer cover graphic” comprises a graphic that is directlyvisible upon inspection of the exterior surface of a garment, and for arefastenable garment is in reference to inspection of the exteriorsurface of the garment when the fastening system is engaged as it wouldbe during use.

[0052] “Permanently bonded” comprises the joining, adhering, connecting,attaching, or the like, of two elements of an absorbent garment suchthat the elements tend to be and remain bonded during normal useconditions of the absorbent garment.

[0053] “Refastenable” comprises the property of two elements beingcapable of releasable attachment, separation, and subsequent releasablereattachment without substantial permanent deformation or rupture.

[0054] “Releasably attached,” “releasably engaged” and variationsthereof comprise two elements being connected or connectable such thatthe elements tend to remain connected absent a separation force appliedto one or both of the elements, and the elements being capable ofseparation without substantial permanent deformation or rupture. Therequired separation force is typically beyond that encountered whilewearing the absorbent garment.

[0055] “Rupture” includes the breaking or tearing apart of a material;in tensile testing, the term comprises the total separation of amaterial into two parts either all at once or in stages, or thedevelopment of a hole in some materials.

[0056] “Stretch bonded” comprises an elastic member being bonded toanother member while the elastic member is extended at least about 25percent of its relaxed length. Desirably, the term “stretch bonded”comprises the situation wherein the elastic member is extended at leastabout 100 percent, and more desirably at least about 300 percent, of itsrelaxed length when it is bonded to the other member.

[0057] “Stretch bonded laminate” comprises a composite material havingat least two layers in which one layer is a gatherable layer and theother layer is an elastic layer. The layers are joined together when theelastic layer is in an extended condition so that upon relaxing thelayers, the gatherable layer is gathered.

[0058] “Surface” includes any layer, film, woven, nonwoven, laminate,composite, or the like, whether pervious or impervious to air, gas,and/or liquids.

[0059] “Tension” includes a uniaxial force tending to cause theextension of a body or the balancing force within that body resistingthe extension.

[0060] “Thermoplastic” describes a material that softens when exposed toheat and which substantially returns to a nonsoftened condition whencooled to room temperature.

[0061] These terms may be defined with additional language or byadditional examples in the remaining portions of the specification, andalso encompass their ordinary and customary meaning(s).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0062]FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a child's training pants with afastening system of the training pants shown connected on one side ofthe training pants and disconnected on the other side of the trainingpants;

[0063]FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view of the training pants of FIG. 1 in anunfastened, stretched and laid flat condition to show an outer surfaceof the training pants which faces away from the wearer;

[0064]FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the training pants in its unfastened,stretched and laid flat condition to show an inner surface of thetraining pants which faces the wearer when the training pants are worn,with portions of the training pants being cut away to reveal underlyingfeatures;

[0065]FIG. 4A is a block diagram of an inspection system having aninformation exchange;

[0066]FIG. 4B illustrates schematically one embodiment of a flow ofinformation to and from an information exchange;

[0067]FIGS. 5A and 5B are logic flow diagrams illustrating one method ofproviding real time quality, suitable for use in connection with aninspection system such as that illustrated in FIG. 4A;

[0068]FIG. 6 is a logic flow diagram of one method of using qualityinformation from a raw material database to adjust process settings,suitable for use in connection with an information system such as thatillustrated in FIG. 4A;

[0069]FIG. 7 is a logic flow diagram illustrating one method ofproviding real time registration set point control, suitable for use inconnection with an information system such as that illustrated in FIG.4A;

[0070]FIG. 8 is a logic flow diagram illustrating another method ofproviding real time registration set point control, suitable for use inconnection with an information system such as that illustrated in FIG.4A;

[0071]FIG. 9 is a schematic illustration of one embodiment of a webguiding system, suitable for use in connection with an informationsystem such as that illustrated in FIG. 4A;

[0072] FIGS. 10A-10D illustrate schematically a fastening systemassociated with the refastenable child's training pants illustrated inFIGS. 1-3;

[0073]FIG. 11 is a schematic illustration of another embodiment of a webguiding system, suitable for use in connection with an informationsystem such as that illustrated in FIG. 4A;

[0074]FIG. 12 is a schematic representation of an exemplary automatedtrouble-shooting system, suitable for use in connection with aninformation system such as that illustrated in FIG. 4A;

[0075]FIGS. 13A and 13B are logic flow diagrams illustrating one methodof providing process information, suitable for use in connection with aninformation system such as that illustrated in FIG. 4A;

[0076]FIG. 14 is a logic flow diagram illustrating one method (indicatedgenerally by reference 1600) of providing an automated trouble-shootingcapability, suitable for use in connection with an information systemsuch as that illustrated in FIG. 4 or 12;

[0077] FIGS. 15-19 illustrate certain exemplary display information fordisplay on an operator interface associated with a manufacturingprocess;

[0078]FIG. 19A illustrates an exemplary display of full productinspection information of a fastening system associated with arefastenable child's training pants as displayed on an operatorinterface;

[0079]FIG. 20 illustrates in schematic form a system for tracking perstation information from a multiple station manufacturing device;

[0080]FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary display of certain per stationinformation for use in connection with a system such as that illustratedin FIG. 20;

[0081]FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrative of one configuration of adatabase system suitable for use in mining data in connection with aninformation system such as that illustrated in FIG. 4A;

[0082]FIG. 23 is a logic flow diagram of a method for correlatingproduct (or process) attribute information with other manufacturingrelated information for use in data mining applications in connectionwith an information system such as that illustrated in FIG. 4A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0083] The methods and apparatus of the present invention can be used tomake a variety of articles such as disposable absorbent garmentsincluding diapers, training pants, feminine hygiene products,incontinence products, other personal care or health care garments, swimpants, athletic clothing, pants and shorts, and the like. As an example,the methods and apparatus of the present invention can be used to makearticles in which at least two elements of the article are connectedtogether during the making thereof to assemble or “pre-fasten” thearticle. For ease of explanation, the methods and apparatus of thepresent invention are hereafter described in connection with makingpre-fastened child's training pants, generally indicated as 20 inFIG. 1. In particular, the methods and apparatus will be described interms of those for making pre-fastened disposable training pants asdescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/444,083 titled“Absorbent Articles With Refastenable Side Seams” and filed Nov. 22,1999 (corresponding to PCT application WO 00/37009 published Jun. 29,2000) by A. L. Fletcher et al., the disclosure of which is incorporatedherein by reference. Training pants 20 can also be constructed using themethods and apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,464 issued Jul.10, 1990 to Van Gompel et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,389 issued Jun.16, 1998 to Brandon et al.; the disclosures of which are alsoincorporated herein by reference.

[0084] With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1,the training pants 20 are illustrated in a partially fastened conditionand comprise an absorbent chassis 32 having a front waist region 22, aback waist region 24, a crotch region 26 interconnecting the front andback waist regions, an inner surface 28 which is configured to contactthe wearer, and an outer surface 30 opposite the inner surface andconfigured to contact the wearer's clothing. With additional referenceto FIGS. 2 and 3, the absorbent chassis 32 also has a pair of laterallyopposite side edges 36 and a pair of longitudinally opposite waistedges, respectively designated front waist edge 38 and back waist edge39. The front waist region 22 is contiguous with the front waist edge38, and the back waist region 24 is contiguous with the back waist edge39.

[0085] The illustrated absorbent chassis 32 comprises a compositestructure 33 (FIG. 3), which when laid flat can be rectangular or anyother desired shape, and has a pair of laterally opposite front sidepanels 34 and a pair of laterally opposite back side panels 134extending outward therefrom. The composite structure 33 and side panels34, 134 may comprise two or more separate elements, as shown in FIG. 1,or be integrally formed. Integrally formed side panels 34,134 andcomposite structure 33 would comprise at least some common materials,such as the bodyside liner, flap composite, outer cover, other materialsand/or combinations thereof, and could define a one-piece elastic,stretchable, or nonstretchable pants. The illustrated compositestructure 33 comprises an outer cover 40, a bodyside liner 42 (FIGS. 1and 3) connected to the outer cover in a superposed relation, anabsorbent assembly 44 (FIG. 3) disposed between the outer cover and thebodyside liner, and a pair of containment flaps 46 (FIG. 3). Theillustrated composite structure 33 has opposite ends 45 which formportions of the front and back waist edges 38 and 39, and opposite sideedges 47 which form portions of the side edges 36 of the absorbentchassis 32 (FIGS. 2 and 3). For reference, arrows 48 and 49 depict theorientation of the longitudinal axis and the transverse or lateral axis,respectively, of the training pants 20.

[0086] With the training pants 20 in the fastened position as partiallyillustrated in FIG. 1, the front and back side panels 34, 134 areconnected together by a fastening system 80 to define athree-dimensional pants configuration having an interior space 51, awaist opening 50 for receiving the wearer into the interior space of thepants, a pair of leg openings 52 and engagement seams 88 along which theside panels are connected. The interior space 51 of the pants 20 is thusbounded by the absorbent chassis 32, the engagement seams 88 and theportions of the side panels 34, 134 extending on opposite sides of theengagement seams 88 (e.g., between the engagement seams and theabsorbent chassis. As used herein, the “interior space” 51 is intendedto refer to the space between any two portions of a three-dimensionalarticle which generally oppose each other. It is understood that atransverse cross-section of the article need not be closed, e.g.,continuous, to define an interior space. For example, a two-dimensionalarticle may be generally folded over on itself so that two portions ofthe article oppose each other to define an interior space of the articletherebetween. Thus, the interior space 51 of the training pants 20 shownin FIG. 1 may be defined by the side panels 34,134 themselves or, if theside panels were fully straightened therebetween, the interior spacewould be defined by a combination of the side panels and the front andback waist regions 22, 24 of the absorbent chassis 32.

[0087] The front waist region 22 comprises the portion of the trainingpants 20 which, when worn, is positioned on the front of the wearerwhile the back waist region 24 comprises the portion of the trainingpants which, when worn, is positioned on the back of the wearer. Thecrotch region 26 of the training pants 20 comprises the portion of thetraining pants 20 which, when worn, is positioned between the legs ofthe wearer and covers the lower torso of the wearer. The front and backside panels 34 and 134 comprise the portions of the training pants 20which, when worn, are positioned on the hips of the wearer. The waistedges 38 and 39 of the absorbent chassis 32 are configured to encirclethe waist of the wearer when worn and together define the waist opening50 (FIG. 1). Portions of the side edges 36 in the crotch region 26generally define the leg openings 52.

[0088] The absorbent chassis 32 is configured to contain and/or absorbany exudates discharged from the wearer. For example, the absorbentchassis 32 desirably although not necessarily comprises the pair ofcontainment flaps 46 which are configured to provide a barrier to thetransverse flow of body exudates. A flap elastic member 53 (FIG. 3) canbe operatively joined with each containment flap 46 in any suitablemanner as is well known in the art. The elasticized containment flaps 46define an unattached edge which assumes an upright configuration in atleast the crotch region 26 of the training pants 20 to form a sealagainst the wearer's body. The containment flaps 46 can be located alongthe side edges 36 of the absorbent chassis 32, and can extendlongitudinally along the entire length of the absorbent chassis or mayonly extend partially along the length of the absorbent chassis.Suitable constructions and arrangements for the containment flaps 46 aregenerally well known to those skilled in the art and are described inU.S. Pat. No. 4,704,116 issued Nov. 3, 1987 to Enloe, which isincorporated herein by reference.

[0089] To further enhance containment and/or absorption of bodyexudates, the training pants 20 desirably although not necessarilyinclude a front waist elastic member 54, a rear waist elastic member 56,and leg elastic members 58, as are known to those skilled in the art(FIG. 3). The waist elastic members 54 and 56 can be operatively joinedto the outer cover 40 and/or the bodyside liner 42 along the oppositewaist edges 38 and 39, and can extend over part or all of the waistedges. The leg elastic members 58 can be operatively joined to the outercover 40 and/or the bodyside liner 42 along the opposite side edges 36and positioned in the crotch region 26 of the training pants 20. The legelastic members 58 can be longitudinally aligned along each side edge 47of the composite structure 33. Each leg elastic member 58 has a frontterminal point 63 and a back terminal point 65, which represent thelongitudinal ends of the elastic gathering caused by the leg elasticmembers. The front terminal points 63 can be located adjacent thelongitudinally innermost parts of the front side panels 34, and the backterminal points 65 can be located adjacent the longitudinally innermostparts of the back side panels 134.

[0090] The flap elastic members 53, the waist elastic members 54 and 56,and the leg elastic members 58 can be formed of any suitable elasticmaterial. As is well known to those skilled in the art, suitable elasticmaterials include sheets, strands or ribbons of natural rubber,synthetic rubber, or thermoplastic elastomeric polymers. The elasticmaterials can be stretched and adhered to a substrate, adhered to agathered substrate, or adhered to a substrate and then elasticized orshrunk, for example with the application of heat, such that elasticconstrictive forces are imparted to the substrate. In one particularembodiment, for example, the leg elastic members 58 comprise a pluralityof dry-spun coalesced multifilament spandex elastomeric threads soldunder the trade name LYCRA and available from E. I. Du Pont de Nemoursand Company, Wilmington, Del., U.S.A.

[0091] The outer cover 40 desirably comprises a material which issubstantially liquid impermeable, and can be elastic, stretchable ornonstretchable. The outer cover 40 can be a single layer of liquidimpermeable material, but desirably comprises a multi-layered laminatestructure in which at least one of the layers is liquid impermeable. Forinstance, the outer cover 40 can include a liquid permeable outer layerand a liquid impermeable inner layer that are suitably joined togetherby a laminate adhesive, ultrasonic bonds, thermal bonds, or the like.Suitable laminate adhesives, which can be applied continuously orintermittently as beads, a spray, parallel swirls, or the like, can beobtained from Findley Adhesives, Inc., of Wauwatosa, Wis., U.S.A., orfrom National Starch and Chemical Company, Bridgewater, N.J. U.S.A. Theliquid permeable outer layer can be any suitable material and desirablyone that provides a generally cloth-like texture. One example of such amaterial is a 20 gsm (grams per square meter) spunbond polypropylenenonwoven web. The outer layer may also be made of those materials ofwhich the liquid permeable bodyside liner 42 is made. While it is not anecessity for the outer layer to be liquid permeable, it is desired thatit provides a relatively cloth-like texture to the wearer.

[0092] The inner layer of the outer cover 40 can be both liquid andvapor impermeable, or can be liquid impermeable and vapor permeable. Theinner layer can be manufactured from a thin plastic film, although otherflexible liquid impermeable materials may also be used. The inner layer,or the liquid impermeable outer cover 40 when a single layer, preventswaste material from wetting articles, such as bedsheets and clothing, aswell as the wearer and caregiver. A suitable liquid impermeable film foruse as a liquid impermeable inner layer, or a single layer liquidimpermeable outer cover 40, is a 0.02 millimeter polyethylene filmcommercially available from Pliant Corporation of Schaumburg, Ill.,U.S.A.

[0093] If the outer cover 40 is a single layer of material, it can beembossed and/or matte finished to provide a more cloth-like appearance.As earlier mentioned, the liquid impermeable material can permit vaporsto escape from the interior space 51 of the disposable absorbentarticle, while still preventing liquids from passing through the outercover 40. A suitable “breathable” material is composed of a microporouspolymer film or a nonwoven fabric that has been coated or otherwisetreated to impart a desired level of liquid impermeability. A suitablemicroporous film is a PMP-1 film material commercially available fromMitsui Toatsu Chemicals, Inc., Tokyo, Japan, or an XKO-8044 polyolefinfilm commercially available from 3M Company, Minneapolis, Minn. U.S.A.

[0094] As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the training pants 20 and inparticular the outer cover 40 desirably comprises one or moreappearance-related components. Examples of appearance-related componentsinclude, but are not limited to, graphics; highlighting or emphasizingleg and waist openings in order to make product shaping more evident orvisible to the user; highlighting or emphasizing areas of the product tosimulate functional components such as elastic leg bands, elasticwaistbands, simulated “fly openings” for boys, ruffles for girls;highlighting areas of the product to change the appearance of the sizeof the product; registering wetness indicators, temperature indicators,and the like in the product; registering a back label, or a front label,in the product; and registering written instructions at a desiredlocation in the product.

[0095] The illustrated pair of training pants 20 is designed for use byyoung girls and includes a registered outer cover graphic 60 (FIG. 2).In this design, the registered graphic 60 includes a primary pictorialimage 61, simulated waist ruffles 62, and simulated leg ruffles 64. Theprimary pictorial image 61 includes a rainbow, sun, clouds, animalcharacters, wagon and balloons. Any suitable design can be utilized fora training pants intended for use by young girls, so as to beaesthetically and/or functionally pleasing to them and the caregiver.The appearance-related components are desirably positioned on thetraining pants 20 at selected locations, which can be carried out usingthe methods disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,389 issued Jun. 16, 1998 toBrandon et al., the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference. The primary pictorial image 61 is desirably positioned in thefront waist region 22 along the longitudinal center line of the trainingpants 20.

[0096] The liquid permeable bodyside liner 42 is illustrated asoverlying the outer cover 40 and absorbent assembly 44, and may but neednot have the same dimensions as the outer cover 40. The bodyside liner42 is desirably compliant, soft feeling, and non-irritating to thechild's skin. Further, the bodyside liner 42 can be less hydrophilicthan the absorbent assembly 44, to present a relatively dry surface tothe wearer and permit liquid to readily penetrate through its thickness.Alternatively, the bodyside liner 42 can be more hydrophilic or can haveessentially the same affinity for moisture as the absorbent assembly 44to present a relatively wet surface to the wearer to increase thesensation of being wet. This wet sensation can be useful as a trainingaid. The hydrophilic/hydrophobic properties can be varied across thelength, width and depth of the bodyside liner 42 and absorbent assembly44 to achieve the desired wetness sensation or leakage performance.

[0097] The bodyside liner 42 can be manufactured from a wide selectionof web materials, such as synthetic fibers (for example, polyester orpolypropylene fibers), natural fibers (for example, wood or cottonfibers), a combination of natural and synthetic fibers, porous foams,reticulated foams, apertured plastic films, or the like. Various wovenand nonwoven fabrics can be used for the bodyside liner 42. For example,the bodyside liner can be composed of a meltblown or spunbonded web ofpolyolefin fibers. The bodyside liner can also be a bonded-carded webcomposed of natural and/or synthetic fibers. The bodyside liner can becomposed of a substantially hydrophobic material, and the hydrophobicmaterial can, optionally, be treated with a surfactant or otherwiseprocessed to impart a desired level of wettability and hydrophilicity.For example, the material can be surface treated with about 0.45 weightpercent of a surfactant mixture comprising Ahcovel N-62 from HodgsonTextile Chemicals of Mount Holly, N.C., U.S.A. and Glucopan 220UP fromHenkel Corporation of Ambler, Pa. in an active ratio of 3:1. Thesurfactant can be applied by any conventional means, such as spraying,printing, brush coating or the like. The surfactant can be applied tothe entire bodyside liner 42 or can be selectively applied to particularsections of the bodyside liner, such as the medial section along thelongitudinal center line.

[0098] A suitable liquid permeable bodyside liner 42 is a nonwovenbicomponent web having a basis weight of about 27 gsm. The nonwovenbicomponent can be a spunbond bicomponent web, or a bonded cardedbicomponent web. Suitable bicomponent staple fibers include apolyethylene/polypropylene bicomponent fiber available from CHISSOCorporation, Osaka, Japan. In this particular bicomponent fiber, thepolypropylene forms the core and the polyethylene forms the sheath ofthe fiber. Other fiber orientations are possible, such as multi-lobe,side-by-side, end-to-end, or the like. The outer cover 40, bodysideliner 42 and other materials used to construct the pants can compriseelastomeric or nonelastomeric materials.

[0099] The absorbent assembly 44 (FIG. 3) is positioned between theouter cover 40 and the bodyside liner 42, which can be joined togetherby any suitable means such as adhesives, ultrasonic bonds, thermalbonds, or the like. The absorbent assembly 44 can be any structure whichis generally compressible, conformable, non-irritating to the child'sskin, and capable of absorbing and retaining liquids and certain bodywastes, and may be manufactured in a wide variety of sizes and shapes,and from a wide variety of liquid absorbent materials commonly used inthe art. For example, the absorbent assembly 44 can suitably comprise amatrix of hydrophilic fibers, such as a web of cellulosic fluff, mixedwith particles of a high-absorbency material commonly known assuperabsorbent material. In a particular embodiment, the absorbentassembly 44 comprises a matrix of cellulosic fluff, such as wood pulpfluff, and superabsorbent hydrogel-forming particles. The wood pulpfluff can be exchanged with synthetic, polymeric, meltblown fibers orshort cut homofil bicomponent synthetic fibers and natural fibers. Thesuperabsorbent particles can be substantially homogeneously mixed withthe hydrophilic fibers or can be nonuniformly mixed. The fluff andsuperabsorbent particles can also be selectively placed into desiredzones of the absorbent assembly 44 to better contain and absorb bodyexudates. The concentration of the superabsorbent particles can alsovary through the thickness of the absorbent assembly 44. Alternatively,the absorbent assembly 44 can comprise a laminate of fibrous webs andsuperabsorbent material or other suitable means of maintaining asuperabsorbent material in a localized area.

[0100] Suitable superabsorbent materials can be selected from natural,synthetic, and modified natural polymers and materials. Thesuperabsorbent materials can be inorganic materials, such as silicagels, or organic compounds, such as crosslinked polymers, for example,sodium neutralized polyacrylic acid. Suitable superabsorbent materialsare available from various commercial vendors, such as Dow ChemicalCompany located in Midland, Mich., U.S.A., and Stockhausen GmbH & Co.KG, D-47805 Krefeld, Federal Republic of Germany. Typically, asuperabsorbent material is capable of absorbing at least about 15 timesits weight in water, and desirably is capable of absorbing more thanabout 25 times its weight in water.

[0101] In one embodiment, the absorbent assembly 44 comprises a blend ofwood pulp fluff and superabsorbent material. One preferred type of pulpis identified with the trade designation CR1654, available from U.S.Alliance, Childersburg, Ala., U.S.A., and is a bleached, highlyabsorbent sulfate wood pulp containing primarily soft wood fibers andabout 16 percent hardwood fibers. As a general rule, the superabsorbentmaterial is present in the absorbent assembly 44 in an amount of from 0to about 90 weight percent based on total weight of the absorbentassembly. The absorbent assembly 44 suitably has a density within therange of about 0.10 to about 0.35 grams per cubic centimeter. Theabsorbent assembly 44 may or may not be wrapped or encompassed by asuitable tissue wrap that may help maintain the integrity and/or shapeof the absorbent assembly.

[0102] The absorbent chassis 32 can also incorporate other materialsdesigned primarily to receive, temporarily store, and/or transportliquid along the mutually facing surface with absorbent assembly 44,thereby maximizing the absorbent capacity of the absorbent assembly. Onesuitable material is referred to as a surge layer (not shown) andcomprises a material having a basis weight of about 50 to about 120grams per square meter, and comprising a through-air-bonded-carded webof a homogenous blend of 60 percent 3 denier type T-256 bicomponentfiber comprising a polyester core/polyethylene sheath and 40 percent 6denier type T-295 polyester fiber, both commercially available from KosaCorporation of Salisbury, N.C., U.S.A.

[0103] As noted previously, the illustrated training pants 20 have frontand back side panels 34 and 134 disposed on each side of the absorbentchassis 32. The front side panels 34 can be permanently bonded alongseams 66 to the composite structure 33 of the absorbent chassis 32 inthe respective front and back waist regions 22 and 24. Moreparticularly, as seen best in FIGS. 2 and 3, the front side panels 34can be permanently bonded to and extend transversely outward beyond theside edges 47 of the composite structure 33 in the front waist region22, and the back side panels 134 can be permanently bonded to and extendtransversely outward beyond the side edges of the composite structure inthe back waist region 24. The side panels 34 and 134 may be bonded tothe composite structure 33 using attachment means known to those skilledin the art such as adhesive, thermal or ultrasonic bonding.Alternatively, the side panels 34 and 134 can be formed as an integralportion of a component of the composite structure 33. For example, theside panels can comprise a generally wider portion of the outer cover40, the bodyside liner 42, and/or another component of the absorbentchassis 32. The front and back side panels 34 and 134 can be permanentlybonded together or be releasably connected with one another such as bythe fastening system 80 of the illustrated embodiment.

[0104] The front and back side panels 34, 134 each have an outer edge 68spaced laterally from the seam 66, a leg end edge 70 disposed toward thelongitudinal center of the training pants 20, and a waist end edge 72disposed toward a longitudinal end of the training pants. The leg endedge 70 and waist end edge 72 extend from the side edges 47 of thecomposite structure 33 to the outer edges 68. The leg end edges 70 ofthe side panels 34 and 134 form part of the side edges 36 of theabsorbent chassis 32. In the back waist region 24, the leg end edges 70are desirably although not necessarily curved and/or angled relative tothe transverse axis 49 to provide greater coverage toward the back ofthe pants 20 as compared to the front of the pants. The waist end edges72 are desirably parallel to the transverse axis 49. The waist end edges72 of the front side panels 34 form part of the front waist edge 38 ofthe absorbent chassis 32, and the waist end edges 72 of the back sidepanels 134 form part of the back waist edge 39 of the absorbent chassis.

[0105] In particular embodiments for improved fit and appearance, theside panels 34,134 desirably have an average length measured parallel tothe longitudinal axis 48 which is about 15 percent or greater, andparticularly about 25 percent or greater, of the overall length of thepants, also measured parallel to the longitudinal axis 48. For example,in training pants 20 having an overall length of about 54 centimeters,the side panels 34,134 desirably have an average length of about 10centimeters or greater, such as about 15 centimeters. While each of theside panels 34,134 extends from the waist opening 50 to one of the legopenings 52, the illustrated back side panels 134 have a continuallydecreasing length dimension moving from the attachment line 66 to theouter edge 68, as is best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

[0106] Each of the side panels 34,134 can include one or moreindividual, distinct pieces of material. In particular embodiments, forexample, each side panel 34, 134 can include first and second side panelportions that are joined at a seam, or can include a single piece ofmaterial which is folded over upon itself (not shown).

[0107] The side panels 34,134 desirably although not necessarilycomprise an elastic material capable of stretching in a directiongenerally parallel to the transverse axis 49 of the training pants 20.Suitable elastic materials, as well as one process of incorporatingelastic side panels into training pants, are described in the followingU.S. Pat. No, 4,940,464 issued Jul. 10, 1990 to Van Gompel et al.; U.S.Pat. No. 5,224,405 issued Jul. 6, 1993 to Pohjola; U.S. Pat. No.5,104,116 issued Apr. 14, 1992 to Pohjola; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,272issued Sep. 10, 1991 to Vogt et al.; all of which are incorporatedherein by reference. In particular embodiments, the elastic materialcomprises a stretch-thermal laminate (STL), a neck-bonded laminate(NBL), a reversibly necked laminate, or a stretch-bonded laminate (SBL)material. Methods of making such materials are well known to thoseskilled in the art and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,220 issued May5, 1987 to Wisneski et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,992 issued Jul. 13, 1993to Morman; and European Patent Application No. EP 0 217 032 published onApr. 8, 1987 in the names of Taylor et al.; all of which areincorporated herein by reference. Alternatively, the side panel materialmay comprise other woven or nonwoven materials, such as those describedabove as being suitable for the outer cover 40 or bodyside liner 42;mechanically pre-strained composites; or stretchable but inelasticmaterials.

[0108] The illustrated training pants 20 includes the fastening system80 for refastenably securing the training pants about the waist of thewearer. The illustrated fastening system 80 includes first fasteningcomponents 82 adapted for refastenable engagement to correspondingsecond fastening components 84. In one embodiment, one surface of eachof the first fastening components 82 comprises a plurality of engagingelements which project from that surface. The engaging elements of thefirst fastening components 82 are adapted to repeatedly engage anddisengage engaging elements of the second fastening components 84.

[0109] The fastening components can comprise separate elements bonded tothe side panels, or they may be integrally formed with the side panels.Thus, unless otherwise specified, the term “fastening component”includes separate components which function as fasteners, and regions ofmaterials such as the side panels which function as fasteners. Moreover,a single material can define multiple fastening components to the extentthat different regions of the material function as separate fasteners.The fastening components 82, 84 can be located on the side panels,between the side panels such as on the absorbent chassis, or acombination of the two.

[0110] The fastening components 82, 84 can comprise any refastenablefasteners suitable for absorbent articles, such as adhesive fasteners,cohesive fasteners, mechanical fasteners, or the like. In particularembodiments the fastening components comprise mechanical fasteningelements for improved performance. Suitable mechanical fasteningelements can be provided by interlocking geometric shaped materials,such as hooks, loops, bulbs, mushrooms, arrowheads, balls on stems, maleand female mating components, buckles, snaps, or the like.

[0111] The refastenable fastening system 80 allows for easy inspectionof the interior space 51 of the pants 20. If necessary, the fasteningsystem 80 also allows the pants 20 to be removed quickly and easily.This is particularly beneficial when the pants contain messy excrement.For training pants 20, the caregiver can completely remove the pant-likeproduct and replace it with a new one without having to remove thechild's shoes and clothing.

[0112] In the illustrated embodiment, the first fastening components 82comprise hook fasteners and the second fastening components 84 comprisecomplementary loop fasteners. In another particular embodiment, thefirst fastening components 82 comprise loop fasteners and the secondfastening components 84 comprise complementary hook fasteners.Alternatively, the fastening components 82, 84 can comprise interlockingsimilar surface fasteners, adhesive or cohesive fastening elements suchas an adhesive fastener and an adhesive-receptive landing zone ormaterial; or the like. Although the training pants 20 illustrated inFIG. 1 show the back side panels 134 overlapping the front side panels34 upon connection thereto, which is convenient, the training pants 20can also be configured so that the front side panels overlap the backside panels when connected. One skilled in the art will recognize thatthe shape, density and polymer composition of the hooks and loops may beselected to obtain the desired level of engagement between the fasteningcomponents 82, 84. A more aggressive hook material may comprise amaterial with a greater average hook height, a greater percentage ofdirectionally-aligned hooks, or a more aggressive hook shape.

[0113] Loop fasteners typically comprise a fabric or material having aplurality of loop members extending upwardly from at least one surfaceof the structure. The loop material can be formed of any suitablematerial, such as acrylic, nylon, polypropylene or polyester, and can beformed by methods such as warp knitting, stitch bonding or needlepunching. Loop materials can also comprise any fibrous structure capableof entangling or catching hook materials, such as carded, spunbonded orother nonwoven webs or composites, including elastomeric andnonelastomeric composites. Suitable loop materials are available fromGuilford Mills, Inc., Greensboro, N.C., U.S.A. under the tradedesignation No. 36549. Another suitable loop material can comprise apattern un-bonded web as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,515 issuedJan. 12, 1999 to Stokes et al.

[0114] Hook fasteners typically comprise a fabric or material having abase or backing structure and a plurality of hook members extendingupwardly from at least one surface of the backing structure. In contrastto the loop fasteners which desirably comprise a flexible fabric, thehook material advantageously comprises a resilient material to minimizeunintentional disengagement of the fastener components as a result ofthe hook material becoming deformed and catching on clothing or otheritems. The term “resilient” as used herein comprises an interlockingmaterial having a predetermined shape and the property of theinterlocking material to resume the predetermined shape after beingengaged and disengaged from a mating, complementary interlockingmaterial. Suitable hook material can be molded or extruded from nylon,polypropylene or another suitable material. Suitable single-sided hookmaterials for the fastening components 82, 84 are available fromcommercial vendors such as Velcro Industries B.V., Amsterdam,Netherlands or affiliates thereof, and are identified as Velcro HTH-829with a unidirectional hook pattern and having a thickness of about 0.9millimeters (35 mils) and HTH-851 with a unidirectional hook pattern andhaving a thickness of about 0.5 millimeters (20 mils); and MinnesotaMining & Manufacturing Co., St. Paul, Minn. U.S.A., including specificmaterials identified as CS-600.

[0115] With particular reference to FIG. 3, the fastening components 82are disposed on the inner surface 28 of the back side panels 134. Thefastening components 82 are desirably positioned along the outer edges68 of the back side panels 134, and abutting or adjacent to the waistend edge 72. In certain embodiments, for example, the fasteningcomponents 82 can be located within about 2 centimeters, and moreparticularly within about 1 centimeter, of the outer edges 68, the waistend edges 72, and the leg end edges 70. With particular reference toFIG. 2, the second fastening components 84 are disposed on the outersurface 30 of the front side panels 134. The second fastening components84 are sized to receive the first fastening components 82 and aredesirably positioned along the outer edges 68 of the front side panels34, and abutting or adjacent to the waist end edge 72. As an example,the second fastening components 84 can be located within about 2centimeters, and more particularly within about 1 centimeter, of theouter edges 68, the waist end edges 72, and the leg end edges 70. Wherethe first fastening components 82 comprise loop fasteners disposed onthe inner surface 28 and the second fastening components 84 comprisehook fasteners disposed on the outer surface 30, the first fasteningcomponents can be sized larger than the second fastening components toensure coverage of the rigid, outwardly-directed hooks.

[0116] The fastening components 84, 82 can be adhered to the respectiveside panels 34, 134 by any means known to those skilled in the art suchas adhesive bonds, ultrasonic bonds or thermal bonds. The fasteningcomponents 82, 84 may comprise separate fastening elements or distinctregions of an integral material. For example, the training pants 20 caninclude an integral second fastening material disposed in the frontwaist region 22 for refastenably connecting to the first fasteningcomponents 82 at two or more different regions, which define the secondfastening components 84 (FIG. 1). In a particular embodiment, thefastening components 82, 84 can comprise integral portions of the waistregions 24, 22. For instance, one of the elastomeric front or back sidepanels 34, 134 can function as second fastening components 84 in thatthey can comprise a material which is releasably engageable withfastening components 82 disposed in the opposite waist region.

[0117] The fastening components 82, 84 of the illustrated embodimentsare rectangular, although they may alternatively be square, round, oval,curved or otherwise non-rectangularly shaped. In particular embodiments,each of the fastening components 82, 84 has a length aligned generallyparallel to the longitudinal axis 48 of the training pants 20 and awidth aligned generally parallel to the transverse axis 49 of thetraining pants. For a child of about 9 to about 15 kilograms (20-30pounds), for example, the length of the fastening components 82, 84 isdesirably from about 5 to about 13 centimeters, such as about 10centimeters, and the width is desirably from about 0.5 to about 3centimeters, such as about 1 centimeter. With particular embodiments,the fastening components 82, 84 can have a length-to-width ratio ofabout 2 or greater, such as about 2 to about 25, and more particularlyabout 5 or greater, such as about 5 to about 8. For other embodimentssuch as for adult products, it may be desirable for one or more of thefastening components to comprise a plurality of relatively smallerfastening elements. In that case, a fastening component or individualfastening elements may have an even smaller length-to-width ratio, forexample, of about 2 or less, and even about 1 or less.

[0118] As shown in FIG. 1, when the fastening components 82, 84 arereleasably connected, the side edges 36 of the absorbent chassis 32 inthe crotch region 26 define the leg openings 52, and the waist edges 38and 39 of the absorbent chassis, including the waist end edges 72 of theside panels 34, 134, define the waist opening 50. For improved formationof the leg openings 52, it can be desirable in some embodiments for thefront side panels 34 to be longitudinally spaced from the back sidepanels 134 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. For example, the front side panels34 can be longitudinally spaced from the back side panels 134 by adistance equal to about 20 percent or greater, particularly from about20 to about 60 percent, and more particularly from about 35 to about 50percent, of the overall length of the pants 20.

[0119] When connected, the fastening components 82, 84 of theillustrated embodiment define refastenable engagement seams 88 (FIG. 1)which desirably although not necessarily extend substantially the entiredistance between the waist opening 50 and the leg openings 52. Morespecifically, the engagement seams 88 can cover about 75 to 100 percent,and particularly about 90 to about 98 percent, of the distance betweenthe waist opening 50 and each leg opening 52, which distance is measuredparallel to the longitudinal axis 48. To construct the engagement seams88 to extend substantially the entire distance between the waist and legopenings 50 and 52, the fastening components 82, 84 can be formed tocover about 80 to 100 percent, and more particularly about 90 to about98 percent, of the distance between the waist end edge 70 and the legend edge 72 of the side panels 34, 134. In other embodiments, thefastening components can comprise a plurality of smaller fasteningelements covering a smaller portion of the distance between the waistopening 50 and the leg openings 52, but spaced apart to span a largedistance between the waist opening and the leg openings.

[0120] For the engagement seams 88 to be located at the sides of thewearer, it can be particularly desirable for the transverse distancebetween the fastening components 82 of the back side panels 134 to besubstantially equal to the transverse distance between the fasteningcomponents 84 of the front side panel 134. The transverse distancebetween a set of fastening components 82, 84 is measured parallel to thetransverse axis 49 between the longitudinal center lines of thefastening component, measured with the side panels 34, 134 in anunstretched condition.

[0121]FIG. 4A is a block diagram of an information system 1100, suitablefor use in connection with a continuous production line 1102manufacturing composite products such as, for example, theabove-described training pants or other disposable absorbent garments.Such articles are generally fabricated using high speed web convertingprocesses. For example, some articles are fabricated at speeds in excessof 300 products/minute, and some articles may be fabricated at speeds inexcess of 500 products/minute, by a converting process that includes asequential addition of component parts (e.g., web materials, graphics,elastic components, and so on) during a production run. It should beunderstood that articles may be fabricated in accordance with thesystems and methods described herein at lower or higher speeds, theforegoing being provided for exemplary purposes.

[0122] In one aspect, the system comprises an inspection system 1104having a plurality of inspection devices (identified generally in FIG.4A as reference character 1106) positioned at various places along theproduction line 1102 to inspect different components of each compositeproduct produced. In the illustrated embodiment, the inspection devices1106 preferably comprise CCD cameras, such as Sony CCD cameras, part No.XC-75, coupled to one or more machine vision inspection systems, such asa Cognex 8120 series processor running Checkpoint III software,available from Cognex Corporation, of Natick, Mass., U.S.A. An advantageof such an inspection system is that it provides a processor for visionsystem purposes and another processor for networking purposes.

[0123] As a particular example, two such cameras coupled to a Cognex8120 series processor running Checkpoint® III software can be used toinspect the amount of overlap between fastening components 82, 84, offastening system 80 used in connection with the above-described trainingpants, at or near the leg and waist extremes of fastening system 80(FIGS. 1-3). More particularly, one camera is positioned to capture animage of fastening system 80 as completed (e.g., first and secondfastening components 82, 84 being engaged) on the left side of theproduct. A second camera is positioned to capture an image of fasteningsystem 80 on the right side of the product at substantially the sametime. The inspection system (which could be any type of examinationsystem including a SICK detector, photoeye, proximity switch or machinevision system) determines an amount of overlap between fasteningcomponents 82 and 84 for each side of the product.

[0124] Further, and as is generally known in the art, machine visionsystems, such as the Cognex 8120 series processor and Checkpoint® IIIsoftware use machine vision “tools” to determine an inspectionparameter. In this example, the inspection parameter comprises an amountof overlap between two fastening components during the manufacture of atraining pant. The tools are configured, again as is known in the art,to detect edges on the basis of gray scale differences within a regionof captured images. Preferably, the machine vision system is configuredto provide an indication of when it senses an error or failure of itstools (e.g., the object to be inspected is not present or there isinsufficient gray scale signal strength due to poor contrast resultingfrom material variability, lighting variability, presentation of theobject to the camera lens, and/or camera focus/aperture settings). Insuch case, the machine vision system may or may not provide aninspection parameter, but it is preferable that such system provides anindication of the existence of an inspection failure (such as a toolfailure) so that any data can be addressed accordingly (e.g., datarelating to an incomplete/inaccurate inspection or a failed tool may bediscarded, ignored, or discounted in value).

[0125] It should be appreciated and understood that the foregoingdiscussion regarding inspecting fastening components 82 and 84 isprovided for exemplary purposes. Other inspection systems, cameras, andmethodologies are compatible with the present disclosure.

[0126] Depending upon placement, machine vision inspection systemsprovide an ability to detect substantially all points on all productsproduced, and allow for image processing of the detected points.

[0127] Other inspection devices 1108 may also be used in connection withinformation system 1100. Such other inspection devices 1108 include anumber of suitable devices, and should be selected according to theparticular inspection need. For example, it has been found to beadvantageous to employ edge detection inspection devices, such as PartNo. 85427-002, available from Fife Corporation, Oklahoma City, Okla.,U.S.A., in order to detect the edges of moving webs and for guiding suchmoving webs in a desired path. Other inspection devices include photoeyesensors (e.g., MAXIBEAM® photoeyes, available from Banner EngineeringCorporation, Minneapolis, Minn., U.S.A.), and UV sensors, such as UVphotoeye sensors (e.g., LUT1-4 series luminescence sensors, availablefrom Sick, Inc., Bloomington, Minn., U.S.A.).

[0128] As an example, it is also contemplated that product spacinginformation may be detected and tracked by photoeyes. For example, afterthe final cut off (where the continuous web of pants is cut intoindividual pants), the training pants are discrete objects flowingthrough the folding, fastening, side panel tucking, and cull processes.Because of the timing of these processes, there may be a need tomaintain consistent pant-to-pant spacing. In this case, photoeyes may beinstalled to monitor the pant spacing at several locations after thefinal cut off.

[0129] In one embodiment, an information exchange 1110 is connected toreceive inspection data from inspection system 1104. Preferably, theinformation exchange 1110 is also connected to one or moremanufacturing-related databases and systems such as, for example, aquality system 1112, a machine set point database 1114, a registrationcontrol system 1116, an operator display/interface 1118, a waste/delaydatabase 1120, or a raw material database 1122.

[0130] The information exchange 1110 preferably comprises a computersystem. More particularly, in one such an embodiment, informationexchange 1110 comprises a personal computer (PC) running SoftLogix™v.10, available from Rockwell Automation. Advantageously, such aconfiguration allows the PC to operate as a “soft” PLC. Informationexchange 1110 further comprises a SoftLogix™ controller running RSLogix™5000 software, which is substantially the same programming software usedfor ControlLog™. These products are also available from RockwellAutomation. The RSLogix™ 5000 program reads inspection measurements offof an information network (e.g., a distributed node, shared memorysystem such as the REFLECTIVE MEMORY network described below). It shouldbe understood that such a computer system is thereafter programmed toperform the specific functions desired. For example, and as will beappreciated from the descriptions that follow, in one embodiment dynamiclink libraries (“DLL's” which may be written in the C programminglanguage) are used to perform desired statistical/mathematicalcalculations and to read/write information to reflective memory.Processor speed should be selected on the basis of the volume ofinformation and how often the information is provided/updated. Forexample, when inspecting training pants, which are preferablymanufactured at high converting speeds, high processing speeds aredesirable (especially if data is gathered for each product producedduring a production run). In particular, information exchange 1110 isconfigured to perform one or more of the following exemplary tasks:

[0131] monitor/receive inspection data regarding substantially allproducts produced during a production run or a sample set thereof;

[0132] determine relevant mathematical characteristics of the inspectiondata, including determining averages and standard deviations;

[0133] filter inspection data, for example, to eliminate clearlyout-of-bounds data (e.g., compare to upper and/or lower limits), or toeliminate inspection data reflecting errors of machine vision toolsassociated with the inspection system;

[0134] compare inspection data (and/or the mathematical characteristicsof such data) to targets/tolerances/limits and to monitor trends;

[0135] publish inspection data, mathematical characteristics of suchdata, or the results of comparing such data to targets for use by othermanufacturing systems or for storage;

[0136] generate quality reports;

[0137] generate machine set point changes and registration control setpoint changes;

[0138] generate troubleshooting recommendations;

[0139] provide inspection data and/or mathematical characteristics ofsuch data for use by other systems to accomplish one or more of theabove exemplary tasks;

[0140] provide machine direction registration control (e.g., in thedirection of product flow through the machine); and/or

[0141] provide registration control in a cross direction (e.g.,perpendicular to the machine direction.

[0142] It should be further understood that multiple informationexchanges can be used to achieve additional levels of distribution ofprocessing.

[0143] In one embodiment, each of the above described systems anddatabases is connected to a communication network 1124. Preferably, thecommunication network 1124 comprises a distributed node, shared memorysystem wherein camera inspection system 1104, information exchange 1110,quality system 1112, machine set point database 1114, registrationsystem 1116, operator interface 1118, waste/delay database 1120, and/orraw material database 1122 comprise nodes of the network. One suitabledistributed node, shared memory network system is commercially availablefrom Encore Real Time Computing, Inc., under the mark REFLECTIVE MEMORYSystem (RMS™). In such a system, applications write relevant data to alocal memory and the REFLECTIVE MEMORY hardware facilitates transfer ofthe data to the local memory of the other nodes, at extremely highspeeds. The high speed and high bandwidth characteristics of such asystem permits real time usage of inspection data developed byinspection system 1104, as well as other data available to informationsystem 1100. In an alternative embodiment, each of the various systemsare directly connected, as reflected by the dashed lines in FIG. 4A. Instill another embodiment, communication between the systems comprisesthe use of both direct connections, as well as communication network1124. The foregoing communications may be over wired connections,wireless connections, or partially wired and partially wirelessconnections.

[0144] The operation of information system 1100 will now be described inconnection with several advantageous operational configurations. Otheroperational aspects will become apparent in the context of certainmethods suitable for use in connection with system 1100, which aredescribed below.

[0145] Real Time Quality System

[0146] In one aspect, information system 1100 is useful for providing areal time quality data information system for use in connection withmanufacturing disposable absorbent garments, manufactured by thesequential addition of component parts (including web materials). Forsimplicity, the operation will be described in terms of inspectingtraining pants, such as those illustrated and described with respect toFIGS. 1-3. In general, inspection system 1104 inspects a plurality ofquality aspects of each (or a statistical sample) training pant producedduring a given production run. For example, inspection systems 1104 and1108 detect a measurement of a placement of a component (e.g., relativeto another component). One specific example of such a measurement is ameasurement of an overlap between hook and loop components ofrefastenable fastening system 80 of each training pant produced. Such ameasurement may be provided by an optical detection system althoughother types of measurements (e.g., flow, temperature, pressure, etc.)may be made by other types of inspection and/or detection systems (e.g.,flow meters, temperature sensors, pressure transducers, etc.). As afurther example, such measurements and such systems may be used forprocess setting checks.

[0147] An inspection parameter is thereafter published for use oncommunication network 1124. In the present example, the inspectionparameter may comprise a numerical indication of the detected amount ofoverlap between fastening components, and is correlated to a particularproduct produced. Correlation to a particular product can be achieved anumber of ways, including assigning a product index number to eachproduct produced. Information exchange 1110 thereafter obtains theinspection parameter and determines a quality parameter based thereonwhich is thereafter stored in quality system 1112. For example,information exchange 1110 can be programmed to monitor a memory locationhaving the product index numbers stored therein. Each time the productindex number increments, information exchange 1110 obtains the latestinspection data from the network. It should be appreciated thatinformation exchange 1110 can also be configured to update itsinformation based on a sampling plan (e.g., every fifth increment in theproduct index number). It should further be appreciated that it is alsopossible to store the inspection parameter as a quality parameterdirectly in quality system 1112.

[0148] One advantage of the present system is that it allows for realtime quality monitoring and data storage without the need of a qualitytechnician. Further, the present system is suitable for use withdiscontinuous items (e.g., hook and loop fastener components added toform a fastening system 80 as part of a training pant). This is unlikeprior art inspection systems that attempt to capture quality data inreal time in connection with continuous webs of materials.

[0149] In one embodiment, information exchange 1110 repeatedlyaccumulates inspection parameters associated with a plurality oftraining pants produced during a particular production run (e.g., thefifty most recent pants produced). Thereafter, information exchange 1110computes an average and standard deviation of the accumulated pluralityof parameters and compares the average and/or standard deviation to atarget reflecting desirable quality characteristics. For example, if theinspection parameter is a numerical value indicative of a measuredamount of hook-to-loop overlap for a refastenable training pant, thetarget can be an ideal value for an average or standard deviation, alimit, a range of values defining upper and lower tolerances, and so on.Product quality can be graded by comparing the average and/or standarddeviation (e.g., a percent defective based on the average and standarddeviation) to the target. As a result of this comparison, informationexchange 1110 determines the quality parameter and makes it availablefor storage in the quality system. This is preferably repeated for eachsuccessive plurality of produced product.

[0150] In one preferred embodiment, average and standard deviation datais used to calculate a percent defective value. The percent defectivevalue is thereafter compared to a target (e.g., an allowable percentdefective) to determine if the calculated percent defective value isclose to or beyond the percent defective limit. More particularly, rawdata is collected until a sample set of data has been obtained.Preferably the number of data points comprising a full sample set isconfigurable (e.g., 25 to 600 products inspected). An array of averagesand an array of standard deviations are calculated. An array of targetvalues and one or more arrays of limit conditions are previously storedin the system. An algorithm (e.g., written in C++) calculates atheoretical percent defective (i.e., how many products are theoreticallyoutside the given limits, assuming a perfect normal distribution withthe given average and standard deviation), and passes the percentdefective information array back to an RSLogix™ program (discussedabove) to perform additional functions (e.g., alarming decision making)based on the percent defective array.

[0151] Alternatively (or additionally), the average and standarddeviation can be compared to a target and limits as in control chartmethods/practice.

[0152] In a similar embodiment, information exchange 1110 provides theaverage and/or standard deviation information (or another mathematicalcharacteristic of relevance) to another manufacturing system which canstore the information and/or compare the information to a target. Forexample, in one embodiment, information exchange 1110 sends the averageand standard deviation information to operator interface 1118 (FIG. 4A).Software associated with operator interface 1118 compares the averageand/or standard deviation information to a target, and thereafterpresents the information to an operator.

[0153] In some contexts, it will be advantageous to know the qualityassociated with each product or package of products actually madeavailable for sale-as opposed to the quality of all products produced,which would include culled products. Therefore, it is seen to beadvantageous to provide an indication of whether a particular inspectionparameter is associated with a culled product, as well to maintain arelationship between non-culled products and the packages into whichthey are to be (or have been) packaged for shipping. Thus, inspectiondata (and data derived therefrom) may be identified by population sets.One possible population set includes all data associated with aproduction run. A different population set may include all dataassociated with a sample set of products produced during the productionrun. Another population set includes only data associated with culledproducts. Still another population set includes only data associatedwith non-culled products (e.g., those being packaged for sale). Otherpopulation sets are possible.

[0154] Preferably, camera inspection system 1104 and/or one of the otherinspection systems 1108 are configured to provide a signal/indication ofwhich inspected products have been automatically culled by theinspection system. Automatic culling during manufacturing is known inthe art and will not be further described herein. If informationexchange 1110 receives a culled indication, it can eliminate theinspection data associated with the culled product when determining thequality parameter so that only data associated with non-culled productsis stored in quality system 1112. This permits the manufacturer todetermine with a great deal of precision the quality of the products itmakes available for use in the market place. For example, if a group ofproducts is consistently at the margin of acceptable quality, thatproduct might be packaged for discount sale. Similarly, such a systemprovides the manufacturer with a high degree of confidence thatsubstantially all products reaching consumers will exhibit positivequality characteristics. This provides a substantial advantage overprior art systems that rely on manual quality determinations of alimited number of the non-culled products produced.

[0155] At this point, it is instructive to note that information can beaccumulated for all products inspected (e.g., both culled andnon-culled), or a subset of all products inspected (e.g., onlynon-culled products). Further, information can be accumulated for allproducts inspected and, thereafter, subsets of the accumulated data maybe used for a particular purpose. In this way, information may beaccumulated for a variety of purposes. For example, quality data canfocus on non-culled products, while waste assessments can focus onculled products. Similarly, process-health related analyses can focus oninformation from both culled and non-culled products.

[0156] In one embodiment, information exchange 1110 and/or qualitysystem 1112 make available quality reporting data. Such qualityreporting data can include real time data associated with each productproduced (or a sample set of such data or mathematical characteristicsof such data). For example, the quality data can be provided for displayon operator interface 1118. A machine operator can view this data inreal or near real time and monitor trends. For instance, quality datacan be displayed against one or more targets. One example of a displaywhich may optionally be used is a box-whisker plot of the data. Thistype of display graphically shows the user the average, upper and lowerquartiles, and extremes of the data. It is a good graphical method toshow average and variability information in one display. Other displaysare also contemplated.

[0157] If the data is trending away from a desired target (or toward alimit), the operator can make a determination of how to alter theprocess before the quality data becomes unacceptable. Further, qualityreporting from information exchange 1110 and/or quality system 1112 cancorrelate stored quality data to package codes (e.g., individual bags orcases of products). For example, when product is packed, the packagecode can be sent to information exchange 1110 and/or quality system1112. Similarly, if repacking of any product occurs, codes can likewisebe provided and stored.

[0158] One particular advantage of the present quality inspection systemis that it does not require any destructive testing in order to acquirethe quality data. For example, it is known to use “disappearinggraphics” on training pants. The graphics are designed to disappear asexudates are discharged from the wearer. A prior art destructive test issometimes referred to as a pulsed adhesive test for determining whetherthere is any glue on the poly cover relative to the graphics. Theinspection systems and methods described herein allow for the use of avision system to detect the presence of adhesive (glue) relative to thedisappearing graphics, without the need for destructive testing. Morespecifically, an ultraviolet light may be used to fluoresce an opticalbrightener contained in the adhesive, thereby making the adhesivevisible to the machine vision camera. It is also contemplated that theglue could be detected by other means such as SICK detectors or otherinspection systems. Advantageously, when using the machine visionsystem, the camera can also see/detect material edges such that adetermination can be made as to whether the glue is in a correctlocation. As one alternative, non-ultraviolet lighting can also be used,with the lighting positioned such that the adhesive casts shadows whichare visible to the camera. In the context of a product comprisingtraining pants, this would preferably be done prior to pant construction(e.g., immediately after applying glue to the outer cover web, butbefore the web is applied to the final product).

[0159] Further, such approaches do not require any products to beremoved from the line and manually inspected. Of course, manualinspection and selective destructive testing can be used in connectionwith the present system and the results of such tests can be provideddirectly to quality system 1112 and/or information exchange 1110.

[0160] Another advantage of the quality inspection system disclosedherein is the ability to correlate data from a variety of sources. Forexample, information exchange 1110 can retrieve waste and/or delay datastored in waste/delay database 1120 and relate such data to inspectionand quality data obtained from inspection system 1104 or manuallyentered into quality system 1112. Such waste and delay information caninclude, for example, the number of products produced and/or culledduring a particular production run or work shift. By correlating thisinformation in time with the inspection system, information exchange1110 enables an operator or logic system to spot trends between qualitydata and waste/delay information, machine crew information, and so on.

[0161] Similarly, in one embodiment information exchange 1110 retrievesmachine/process set point information from machine set point database1114 and/or registration system and correlates such data toinspection/quality data. By correlating this information in time, it ispossible to identify machine/process setting contributions to productquality. This information is also useful for improving future productionruns and/or to automatically make adjustments to current productionruns. Likewise, information exchange 1110 can correlate raw materialdata from raw material database 1122 to product quality for determiningraw material contributions (positive and negative) to quality and/orproductivity.

[0162] It is instructive to note at this point that data manipulationcan be accomplished within a processor associated with informationexchange 1110, or in another system. For example, data manipulation canbe accomplished in one or more vision inspection system computers (e.g.,computers associated with inspection system 1104), a quality system(e.g., quality system 1112), a registration control system (e.g., system1116), and so on. This aspect of the present disclosure is reflected, atleast in part, by the dotted lines indicating information flow into andout of information exchange 1110, as well as the use of communicationnetwork 1124 for information flow. Further, although no particular datamanipulation task need be accomplished in information exchange 1110, theuse of information exchange 1110 facilitates an exchange ofdata/information, thereby allowing such data/information to be relatedtogether in the various advantageous ways such as those describedherein.

[0163]FIG. 4B schematically illustrates information flow to and from aninformation exchange, such as information exchange 1110 of FIG. 4A. Asillustrated, information may flow both to and from the informationexchange using an information network.

[0164]FIGS. 5A and 5B are logic flow diagrams illustrating a method(identified generally as reference character 1150) of providing realtime quality information, suitable for use in connection with aninspection system such as that illustrated in FIG. 4A. At block 1152, aninspection system automatically inspects one or more aspects of theproduct being produced (e.g., a machine vision inspection system detectsa measurement of the hook-to-loop overlap of a training pant). Asindicated above, inspection system 1104 (FIG. 4A) can detect an absoluteplacement of one or more components, or a relative placement of onecomponent relative to another component, or a combination of absoluteand relative placements. At block 1154, a quality parameter isdetermined in association with the inspected aspect of the productproduced. In one form, the quality parameter is a numerical valuecorresponding to the inspected aspect (e.g., a numerical value of thehook-to-loop overlap detected by a machine vision system). The qualityparameter is thereafter correlated to specific products inspected (block1156). Preferably, this correlation is done at least on the basis of aproduct index and/or time, but may be done on other bases. For example,if a unique serial number or lot number is assigned to a particularproduct, the quality parameter can be correlated in that way as well. Atblock 1158 a determination is made as to whether the quality parameteris associated with a culled product. As reflected by blocks 1160 and1162, it is generally believed to be preferable (and not mandatory)—forquality purposes—to store quality data only with respect to non-culledproducts.

[0165] In one embodiment, a culled/non-culled signal is correlated tothe particular product inspected using a shift register approach. Morespecifically, the inspection system sets an offset for each inspectionpoint on the machine. For example, assume that one inspection point(e.g., a photoeye positioned to detect a flap position) detects amisalignment with respect to a particular product that should lead toculling that product. The inspection system knows the position of thatproduct relative to the next available culling point because it knowsthe location of the inspection point. As such, the system can use anoffset and shift register to track the product being culled.

[0166] Further, it should be understood that the stored quality data canrelate to individual inspected products, or to a mathematicalcharacteristic of a plurality of all products or culled products ornon-culled products. For example, the stored quality data can reflect anaverage and/or standard deviation of each 50 non-culled productsproduced during the production run. Advantageously, average and standarddeviation data is useful for identifying a percent “defective”characteristic relative to a target(s) (e.g., an acceptability range).It should be understood that other sample sets may be used. For example,a suitable sample set can be selected and inspected such that astatistical representation of a quality characteristic of substantiallyall products produced during the production run may be determined fromthe inspected sample set.

[0167] Connector A (block 1168) is a connection to a flow diagram (FIG.5B) that illustrates exemplary steps for determining a quality parameteras a function of a plurality of inspection measurements. At blocks 1170and 1172, the inspection system obtains an image of one or morecomponent parts and publishes a numerical value corresponding to adetected placement of the one or more component parts. At block 1174, aplurality of the published numerical values of the detected placementsare accumulated so that a mathematical characteristic (e.g., average andstandard deviation, as shown in block 1176) can be used to determine thequality parameter to be stored (block 1178).

[0168] Referring again to FIG. 5A, at blocks 1164 and 1166, the storedquality data is used to prepare a quality report for publication anduse. In one form, the quality report is a computed, exponentiallyweighted moving average of the quality data stored in the qualitydatabase. It should be understood, however, that a large variety ofquality reports and report formats can be achieved with the novelsystems and methods disclosed herein.

[0169] Connector B (block 1180) is a connection to a flow diagram (FIG.5B) that illustrates exemplary uses of the quality report prepared andpublished at blocks 1164, 1166 of FIG. 5A. One such use is todisplay—preferably in real time—the quality report to an operatorassociated with the manufacturing process. Another exemplary use is todisplay the quality parameter relative to a standard/target. Forinstance, the quality parameter can be displayed relative to upper andlower quality limits, or a number of “quality bins” (e.g., best quality,nominal/acceptable quality, degraded quality, and unacceptable quality).Yet another exemplary use of the quality report is to correlate thedetermined quality parameters to a package of products produced duringthe production run.

[0170] Connector C (block 1184) is a connection to a flow diagram (FIG.5B) that illustrates additional ways to use quality data developedduring method 1150. Although connector C is illustrated as occurringbetween blocks 1162 and 1164, such other uses are not limited to beingperformed at that particular point in the method. As illustrated inblock 1186 of FIG. 5B, quality data can be related to raw material dataso that relationships between raw material and quality can be mined.Likewise, quality data can also be related to productivity data (e.g.,waste and delay data) to determine relationships between quality andwaste/delay. Similarly, quality data can be related to machine set pointinformation so that relationship between quality measurements andprocess/machine settings can be identified and used to improve quality.

[0171] Quality data can be related to raw material data so thatrelationships between raw material and quality can be mined. Forexample, data from an inspection system positioned to detect side panelskew in a training pant manufacturing process can be correlated toparticular material lots (i.e., using a raw material database) todetermine if material properties affect the converting process andproduct quality in any significant way.

[0172] Quality data can also be related to productivity data todetermine relationships between quality and waste/delay. For example,juxtaposing cross direction material overlap variability determinationswith machine waste data provide an indication of the relative importanceof reducing fastening overlap variability (i.e., for a prefastenedtraining pant) to the productivity of the manufacturing process. Assume,as a further example, that it is desirable to reduce average fasteningoverlap variability by 0.5 mm, data from a prior production run isanalyzed to determine whether there was any marked improved in wasteduring times at which the measured overlap variability fell within thedesired range. If there was no marked improvement, the cost of achievingthe improvement in variability might not be justified.

[0173] Relationships between quality measurements and process/machinesettings can also be identified and used to improve quality. Referringto the manufacture of prefastened training pants as an example, intrying to reduce fastening overlap variability (e.g., in a machinedirection), an operator could vary/change settings of relevant vacuumlevels on the machine. An automated quality data system can detect suchchanges substantially immediately, so that the modification to themachine can be evaluated in the short term by comparing, for example,average and standard deviation information to those achieved before thechange. Unlike the prior art, this approach permits much faster processoptimization and further permits quality determinations associated withor correlated to one or more composite products produced during theproduction run.

[0174] Another example of an advantage, in the context of improvingfastener overlap with prefastened training pants, is the position of adevice used in the fastening operation (e.g., a folding board or afolding finger) can be monitored with an electric tape or with an LVDT(linear voltage differential transducer) to identify and determine theimpact of finger placement on fastener overlap quality.

[0175] As still another example, side panel base material (sometimesreferred to as “SBL”) stretch to stop information (e.g., test dataavailable from a raw material database and supplied by the raw materialsupplier) can be used to automatically adjust a side panel cut length(and/or finished product panel width).

[0176] Although a wide variety of advantages are possible, it shouldalso be understood that less data can be monitored, stored and used, ifdesirable. For example, in some applications, computer storagelimitations may present concerns. In those and similar situations,periodic sampling of measurements can be employed to reduce the amountof data handling required.

[0177] As can be appreciated from the foregoing, the systems and methodsfor automating quality processes disclosed herein provide distinctadvantages over prior art systems that require a quality technician tomanually measure and enter quality measurements into a quality database.A specific example is instructive. With prior art manual inspectionsystems (i.e., those in which quality data is not tied to productpackages), if the inspector finds a defect, the inspector must typically“back track,” starting with packaging at the end of the machine untilhe/she finds the end of defect occurrences. This can be significantbecause an inspector can only inspect a limited number of items—perhapsone item every 30 minutes or so. By tracking data in real time andrelating that data to a package code (e.g., bag or case), operatorsand/or quality inspectors are notified as to the existence of defectsfaster (i.e., those not significant enough to cause an automatic cull,but beyond acceptable limits) and to pinpoint those defects to aparticular package or group of packages. Further, with the presentquality inspection systems and methods, quality reports can be generatedthat include quality data for substantially every product shipped,rather than just a few products that are manually inspected during eachproduction run. Also, the present quality systems and methods permitoperators to relate inspection data to other manufacturing-related datathat may be available which is useful for root cause failure analysis,process improvement, and problem elimination. Such othermanufacturing-related data includes raw material data, machine settingsdata (including changes to such settings during a production run),and/or waste/delay data.

[0178]FIG. 6 is a logic flow diagram of a method of using qualityinformation from a raw material database to adjust process settings,suitable for use in connection with the information system 1100 of FIG.4A. At block 1202, quality information associated with raw material isstored in a raw material database. Preferably, the raw material supplierprovides this information. For example, as described above in connectionwith FIGS. 1-3, in one embodiment of a child's training pant 20, sidepanels 34,134 desirably (although not necessarily) comprise an elasticmaterial capable of stretching in a direction generally parallel to thetransverse axis 49 of the training pants 20. A certain amount ofstretching, therefore, is desirable. Advantageously, the qualityinspection systems and methods disclosed herein allow for theelimination of redundant testing of side panel stretch testing, such asa stretch to stop test. For example, the supplier of the elasticmaterial used to supply side panels 34,134 typically provides datacorresponding to a stretch to stop test conducted on the suppliedelastic material. That data can be entered directly into a qualitysystem associated with the product being manufactured from the rawmaterial (e.g., quality system 1112 of FIG. 4A in connection withmanufacturing training pants). With this data in the system, there is nolonger a need to conduct a stretch to stop on a finished product becausethe information is already known.

[0179] Referring still to FIG. 6, at block 1204 and 1206 the rawmaterial quality data is correlated to products being produced on theproduction line. For example, it is known in the art to track when aparticular spindle of material is switched into (or out of) a productionline process. Further, the pertinent raw material quality data can bestored in a code (e.g., a bar code) associated with the material itself.Thus, an operator can use a code reader to extract the data and havethat data published (e.g., via raw material system 1122 or informationexchange 1110 of FIG. 4A) for use by other manufacturing informationsystems. For example, at blocks 1210-1214, the information exchange 1110can obtain the raw material quality information, as well as processsettings (e.g., from machine set point data base 1114 or registrationsystem 1116) and, based on the raw material quality information, adjusta machine setting.

[0180] Registration Set Point Control System

[0181] Referring again to FIG. 4A, information system 1100 can also beconfigured to provide a real time automatic registration set pointcontrol system. Such a system is particularly useful in connection withmanufacturing disposable absorbent garments made from a sequentialaddition of component parts requiring registration during a productionrun. Such a system is particularly useful for controlling registrationof one or more components of a training pant.

[0182] An inspection system (e.g., camera inspection system 1104 or oneof the other inspection systems 1108) is employed to inspect a componentpart of composite products produced during the production run.Advantageously, the inspected aspects of the component parts can be thesame aspects inspected as part of the quality system described above.Preferably, the inspection system is configured to inspect each productproduced or a statistical sampling of products. The inspection systemthereafter publishes an inspection parameter that provides an indicationof a characteristic of the inspected component part. Informationexchange 1110 thereafter obtains the inspection parameter (e.g., viacommunication network 1124) and determines a set point adjustment as afunction of the inspection parameter. The set point adjustment is usedto adjust a set point of registration system 1116.

[0183] Various aspects of controlling registration in connection withmanufacturing training pants (e.g., prefastened training pants) helpillustrate additional aspects of registration set point control systemconstructed and operated in accordance with aspects of the presentdisclosure. For example, and as described above with in connection withFIGS. 1-3, it is considered desirable to control longitudinal placementof side panel 34,134 component parts of training pants 20. Thus, thereis a need to control the longitudinal placement of side panels 34,134.One or more photoeye sensors (i.e., part of the other inspection systems1108 illustrated in FIG. 4A) detect and control the longitudinalplacement of each side panel. An exemplary photoeye type is theMAXI-BEAM® series, available from Banner Engineering Corporation,Minneapolis, Minn., U.S.A. More particularly, one or more photoeyesdetect the leading edge of the side panel in the longitudinal direction.One or more cameras of camera inspection system 1104 are positioned“downstream” from the photoeye sensor(s) to double check thelongitudinal placement of the side panels. For example, a machine visionsystem captures an image of the entire product at a point after the sidepanel placement takes place. The machine vision system is preferablyprogrammed to detect gray scale differences in the captured image(s) todetermine an absolute position of the side panel placement on eachproduct produced during a production run. The determined longitudinalposition of the side panel is compared to a target (e.g., in informationexchange 1110 or in another subsystem such as registration system 1116).Based on an amount of difference between the determined absoluteposition of the side panel placement and the target, the photoeye setpoint is adjusted to maintain the longitudinal placement withindesirable bounds. It should be understood that variations are possible.For instance, in one embodiment, rather than comparing each determinedposition of the side panel placement to a target, information exchange1110 (or another subsystem such as registration system 1116) accumulatesa plurality of measurements. The set point determination is then made onthe basis of a characteristic of the accumulated plurality ofmeasurements (e.g., on the basis of an average and/or standard deviationdetermined from the accumulated plurality of measurements).

[0184] Another example involves predictive adjustments and, inparticular, adjustments based on the determined absolute position of theside panel placement and the target. When the vision system is capturingimages before a downstream process, predictive adjustments can be made.As a specific example, if the side panels on one side of the productbegin to get short, all other parameters being substantially equal, thefastener overlap on the one side would also decrease. Since this sidepanel width prior to the fastening module, the system can be programmedto steer the web towards the one side with the shorter side panels. Thiswould be a predictive or an anticipatory adjustment which would minimizethe overall loss in overlap on the one side.

[0185] Another example involves detecting fastener components offastening system 80 of the above-described training pants 20. Asdiscussed above, it is desirable to control placement of a hook fastenercomponent (e.g., first fastening component 82 above of FIGS. 1-3 above)in the machine direction (MD) relative to an associated side panel. Inone embodiment, hook fastener placement is controlled by relativepositioning of a signal from a proximity switch (e.g., an applicatorproximity switch on a line shaft) located on a cut/place module, inconnection with signals from a pair of photoeye sensors (e.g., otherinspection systems 1108) positioned to detect the side panels. A fullproduct inspection machine vision system (e.g., one or more machinevision systems associated with camera inspection system 1104) positioneddownstream of the photoeye sensors can measure the absolute placement ofthe hook component on the training pant, in a manner similar to thatdescribed above with respect to measuring side panel longitudinalplacement. With this information, information exchange 1110 (or anothersubsystem such as registration system 1116) can determine a desiredrelative offset between a signal from the applicator proximity switchand the associated photoeye sensor and thereafter adjust the set pointof the offset to maintain the desired placement of the hook fastener.

[0186] Still another example involves manufacturing training pants 20(FIG. 1). As described above, it is often desirable to locate one ormore graphic components on such training pants during manufacture.Certain graphics, such as a graphic waist band, are registered forplacement relative to placement of a pad component. Thus, graphicsregistration may be controlled by a pad detection signal coupled with agraphics eyespot detector (e.g., detected by a UV photoeye), by knownmethods. A full product inspection system (e.g., such as a multiplecamera system 1104) determines an absolute measurement of the graphicplacement relative to the pad. Based on this absolute measurement,information exchange 1110 (or another subsystem such as registrationsystem 1116) thereafter determines whether a set point adjustment isrequired based on the relative offset between the pad detection signaland the detected graphics eyespot. Thus, the full product inspectionsystem provides an input for controlling the registration of thegraphics.

[0187] Also, and as described above, other examples include detectingthe placement of adhesives (e.g., determining where glue is positionedrelative to graphics, such as disappearing graphics, or the position ofglue used to hold elastic components to a final product).

[0188]FIGS. 7 and 8 are logic flow diagrams illustrating methods ofproviding real time registration set point control, suitable for use inconnection with an information system such as information system 1100illustrated in FIG. 4A.

[0189] Referring first to FIG. 7, illustrated therein is a method 1300for using an inspection system to control registration of componentparts of composite products, such as components of disposable absorbentgarments, including training pants 20. At blocks 1302 and 1304, firstinspection system detects and controls a placement of a first componentof a composite product. For example, as discussed above, a photosensorsuch as a photoeye is positioned to detect and trigger a side panel cutlength, which may be regarded as a form of registration control(controlling the side panel length relative to the entire trainingpant). At block 1306, a second inspection sensor (e.g., a full productmachine vision system such as camera inspection system 1104 of FIG. 4Apositioned downstream from the first inspection sensor) detects anabsolute position of the first component. The second inspection sensorprovides a numerical value of the absolute position of the firstcomponent which, as illustrated at block 1308, is compared to a targetfor determining (block 1310) whether a set point change is desirable. Inone embodiment, a delay or deadband (block 1312) may be implemented(e.g., immediately after changing a set point). This delay may also beviewed as a filtering process, initiated in response to a machinetransition, to avoid the collection of transitional data that may occurwhile during such a machine transition.

[0190] Apart from set point changes, other machine transitions that caninitiate similar data filtering (e.g., deadband filtering) includesplice occurrences. For example, a machine indication that a rawmaterial splice is pending may be used to disregard collection ofinspection data during a particular time period (e.g., a periodimmediately following the machine transition or indication of thepending machine transition). As can be appreciated in view of theforegoing, such filtering on transitions is applicable to a variety ofthe data collection methods and systems disclosed herein. For example,deadband filtering may be used to limit data collection for use inproviding operator alarms and/or machine troubleshooting indications.

[0191] Using side panel longitudinal placement as an example, a photoeye(e.g., one of the other inspection systems 1108 of FIG. 4A) ispositioned to detect and control the longitudinal placement of sidepanel components of training pants manufactured during a production run.The photoeye operates at a controllable set point and provides a signalindicative of a position of the leading edge of the side panel. A fullproduct machine vision inspection system thereafter determines anabsolute position of the side panel longitudinal placement. A pluralityof these absolute measurements are accumulated (e.g., by informationexchange 1110) and one or more mathematical characteristics, such as theaverage and/or standard deviation of the plurality of measurements arethere after determined. The mathematical characteristics are thereaftercompared to a target to determine if an adjustment to the set point ofthe photoeye is required in order to maintain a desired degree ofregistration of the side panel longitudinal placement.

[0192] It should be understood that the foregoing example can be scaledto include detecting positions of two or more components and controllingregistration by controlling the position of one component relative toanother component, using a machine vision system. This is an area inwhich a machine vision inspection system provides certain advantages.For example, it is possible that a relative registration between firstand second component parts remains relatively steady (within acceptablebounds, and as measured by reference to a position of the sensor), butthe absolute registration of the two components on the full product isout-of-bounds. Hook longitudinal placement relative to a leading edge ofa side panel of a prefastened training pant provides an illustrativeexample. The hook may be placed by comparing a hook applicator proximityswitch signal to a side panel longitudinal placement photoeye signal.With a full product vision inspection system, it is possible to obtainan absolute measurement of the leading edge of hook to the leading edgeof the SBL, and thereafter adjust the proximity switch/photoeye systemoffset accordingly to obtain and/or maintain a desired spacing.

[0193]FIG. 8 is a logic flow diagram illustrating another method ofproviding real time registration set point control, suitable for use inconnection with an information system such as information system 1100illustrated in FIG. 4A. At blocks 1352 and 1354, a placement of a firstcomponent part is detected. A signal is provided that indicates theplacement of the first component. For example, a photosensor can be usedto detect a placement of a pad component of a training pant productduring manufacture. At blocks 1356 and 1358, a placement of a secondcomponent part is detected and a signal is provided to indicate theplacement of the second component (e.g., a UV photoeye detects agraphics eyespot on the training pant during manufacture). At block1360, an absolute position of the second component relative to the firstis determined. For example, a full product inspection system can detecta position of the graphics on the training pant and the position of thepad. At blocks 1362 and 1364, this absolute measurement is compared to atarget so that a set point adjustment can be made with respect toplacement of one or both components (e.g., adjusting a set point so thatthe graphics are positioned at a correct position relative to the pad).In one embodiment, a delay or deadband (block 1366) is implementedimmediately after changing a set point. This helps to avoid thecollection of transitional data that occurs while the process shiftsfrom one set point to another. As already explained herein, it may bepreferable to accumulate a plurality of absolute measurements associatedwith a plurality of composite products (e.g., 50) and compare an averageand/or standard deviation of the plurality of measurements to a target.It should be understood that such an approach will help reduce thepossibility of spurious erroneous results being used to adjustregistration set points.

[0194] It should be appreciated that the desired set point adjustmentcan be determined by, for example, the information exchange, theinspection system, or the registration control system.

[0195] Web Guiding

[0196]FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a web guiding system(indicated generally as 1400 in FIG. 9), suitable for use in connectionwith an information system such as that illustrated in FIG. 4A. For easeof understanding, FIG. 9 will be described in terms of a web guidingsystem for use in controlling an amount of overlap between fasteningcomponents 82, 84 of fastening system 80, associated with side panelcomponents 34, 134 of a pre-assembled training pant 20.

[0197] A product 1402, including fastening system 80 is inspected by acamera inspection system 1404. The camera inspection system 1404 can bepart of multiple camera inspection system 1104 (FIG. 4A), or can be aseparate system. In one embodiment, camera inspection system 1404comprises a machine vision inspection system (e.g., a Cognex series 8210processor, running Checkpoint® III software). In the illustratedexemplary embodiment, camera inspection system 1404 is positioned todetect an amount of overlap between fastening components 82, 84 offastening system 80 after an assembly. This may be described asinspecting a visual image of two web components to determine theplacement of the components relative to one another. In one embodiment,camera inspection system 1404 captures images of the overlap betweenfastening components 82, 84 for every training pant produced during aproduction run, and from two aspects—a left side and a right side. Thejoinder of fastening components 82, 84 actually occurs downstream from aconveyor system 1406. By steering conveyor system 1406 (e.g., usingdrive system 1408), it is possible to steer the product prior to andinto the fastening process (which, in this example, cannot be steered).As noted below, it is also contemplated that one embodiment would steerthe fastening process to the product.

[0198]FIG. 9 also illustrates information exchange 1110 and a network(communication network 1124) for facilitating communications betweencamera inspection system 1404, information exchange 1110, drive system1408, and conveyor 1406. It should be understood that other means forfacilitating communications between these subsystems can be employed,including direct connections or multiple communication networks orcombinations thereof.

[0199] In operation, camera inspection system 1404 automaticallyinspects each training pant produced during a production run (or asample set of training pants produced during the run) to detect anamount of overlap between fastening components 82, 84. In oneembodiment, camera inspection system 1404 captures images of fasteningsystem 80 from two sides of the product (referred to as a “left side” or“right side”, or a “drive side” and an “operator side”). FIGS. 10A-10Dschematically illustrate fastening system 80 in this regard. Inparticular, FIG. 10A illustrates fastening components 82, 84 unfastened.FIG. 10B illustrates an overlap between fastening components 82, 84,viewed from a right side of the product. FIG. 1C illustrates the overlapbetween fastening components 82, 84, viewed from a left side of theproduct. FIG. 10D illustrates a completed product 20 for context.

[0200] In one embodiment, fastener overlap on the right side of theproduct is inspected by lighting the seam from the inside of thetraining pant and taking a picture/image with a camera located on theoutside of the training pant. A substantially similar process occurswith the fastener overlap on the left side of the product (e.g., using aseparate camera and light). In this embodiment, rather than using twoinspection systems to inspect the images of the right and left sidefastener overlaps separately, an image combiner places the two images onthe same monitor screen (e.g., side by side). In this regard, thecombined images may be viewed as a form of a composite image. Is it alsopossible to overlay the images.

[0201] Camera inspection system 1404 publishes an inspection parameter(e.g., a numerical value) indicative of the detected amount of overlapof fastening components 82, 84 (e.g., based on machine vision toolswhich are generally understood in the art). Thereafter, informationexchange 1110 uses the inspection parameter data to determine whetherthe position of conveyor 1406 should be adjusted. For example, in oneembodiment, information exchange 1110 accumulates a plurality ofinspection parameters associated with a plurality of products produced(i.e., a plurality of composite webs formed by the joinder of fasteningcomponents 82, 84 of releasable fastening system 80). Informationexchange 1110 determines a mathematical characteristic (e.g., an averageand/or standard deviation) of the accumulated plurality of inspectionparameters. The mathematical characteristic is compared to a target(e.g., an acceptability value/range of values) to determine whetherdrive system 1408 should adjust the position of conveyor 1406 to achievea more desirable amount of overlap between fastening components 82, 84on future products produced.

[0202] In one embodiment, information exchange 1110 provides themathematical characteristic data for use by drive system 1408. Drivesystem 1408 thereafter compares the mathematical characteristic totarget data to determine an amount (if any) to adjust conveyor 1406(e.g., in a cross-direction) so that the desired amount of overlapbetween the two fastening components 82, 84 is achieved. In anotherembodiment, information exchange 1110 determines an amount that conveyor1406 should be adjusted and provides an adjustment parameter to drivesystem 1408 for adjusting conveyor 1406.

[0203]FIG. 11 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of a web guidingsystem (indicated generally as 1450 in FIG. 11), suitable for use inconnection with an information system such as that illustrated in FIG.4A. System 1450 is illustrated in the context of an aspect of amanufacturing process in which first and second web components 1452,1454are provided on separate feed systems (e.g., conveyors) and processed(e.g., a joinder process 1456 such as a lamination process or a cuttingprocess) to form a composite product or product component 1458. In theillustrated example, a first web guide 1460 steers web component 1452based on a sensor (i.e., a web guide sensor) associated with web guide1460 that is designed to detect the edge(s) of web components.Similarly, a second web guide 1462 steers web component 1454 based on asensor associated with web guide 1462 that is designed to detect theedge(s) of web components. Such sensors are generally referred to asedge detectors (e.g., ultrasonic or light bar detectors), and they arelocated in close proximity to the associated web guide and provide a webedge detection signal to the web guide. Fife Corporation of OklahomaCity, Okla., provides such sensors and web guide equipment, includingpart no. 85427-002.

[0204] An operational example further illustrates the advantages of webguiding system 1400. Disposable diapers and training pants often includea web of “surge material” that is designed to rapidly intake dischargedexudates to prevent leaking outside of the garment. Such surge materialis added as a continuous web of material during the manufacturingprocess. If a typical prior art web guide with an edge detector is usedto guide the web of surge material into a cut and place process on themanufacturing line, there is no feedback of the placement of the surgematerial (e.g., in the cross direction) on the downstream web. Adownstream vision system, such as camera inspection system 1404,provides feedback of the actual placement of the surge material afterthe cut and place operation so cross direction errors can be corrected.This can be done automatically by moving the guide, by physically movingthe guide point (e.g., by way of a mechanically operated microslide orthe like), or by moving the guide point electronically inside the sensor(e.g., by adjusting an electrical offset).

[0205] Preferably, one or both web guide sensors are mechanically and/orelectronically adjustable. For example, a mechanically adjustable webguide sensor preferably includes a capability to have its positionmechanically translatable. Likewise, an electronically adjustable webguide sensor preferable includes a capability to have its operating setpoint be adjusted (e.g., via a message/signal over communication network1124).

[0206] After the joinder process 1456, a camera inspection system 1464inspects the composite web 1458 to detect an alignment betweencomponents 1452,1454 based on one or more captured images of compositeweb 1458. Preferably, the camera inspection system 1456 is part ofmultiple camera inspection system 1104 (FIG. 4A); but it can be adistinct system. In one embodiment, camera inspection system 1456comprises a machine vision inspection system, such as a Cognex 8120processor running Checkpoint III software, available from CognexCorporation. Camera inspection system 1464 communicates with a drivesystem 1468 for controlling one or both feed systems supplying the firstand second web components 1452,1454 to adjust a placement of guides 1460and 1462 to achieve a best alignment of the individual webs in compositeweb 1458. In the illustrated example, web guides 1460, 1462, camerainspection system 1464, drive system 1468, and information exchange 1110communicate on an information/communication network, such ascommunication network 1124. Other communication schemes are possible.

[0207] The web guiding system 1450 illustrated in FIG. 11 will befurther described in terms of operational control examples. A firstexample is generally referred to as a direct control example. In thefirst example, web guide 1460 and its associated edge detector generallyguide first web component 1452 as it is fed into joinder process 1456.Similarly, web guide 1462 and its associated edge detector generallyguide second web component 1454 as it is fed into joinder process 1456to form composite web 1458. In this example, camera inspection system1456 comprises a machine vision system capable of detecting grayscaledifferences indicative of the placement of first and second webcomponents 1452, 1454 to determine the alignment of such componentsafter the joinder process. Camera inspection system 1456 is preferablyconfigured and arranged to periodically inspect composite web 1458. Forexample, when manufacturing training pants 20, such as those describedabove in connection with FIGS. 1-3, camera inspection system 1456,composite web 1458 corresponds to a plurality of training pants, priorto a cutting stage. Thus, camera inspection system 1456 is configured toinspect each training pant 20 as it is being manufactured at a pointafter joinder process 1456.

[0208] Camera inspection system 1464 provides an inspection parameterthat indicates the determined relative placement (e.g., alignment) offirst and second web components 1452, 1454. Information exchange 1110obtains the inspection parameter. If the inspection parameter indicatesthat one of the web components 1452, 1454 is out of alignment, drivesystem 1468 selectively steers the affected feed system (e.g., aconveyor) in a direction calculated to bring the affected web componentback into a proper level of alignment.

[0209] Preferably, information exchange 1110 accumulates a plurality ofinspection parameters corresponding to a plurality of productsinspected. Information exchange 1110 then calculates a pertinentmathematical characteristic of the accumulated plurality of inspectionparameters, such as, for example, an average and/or standard deviation.As a further example, information exchange 1110 accumulates the fiftymost recently published inspection parameters and calculates anaverage/standard deviation, and repeats this process throughout aproduction run for each group of fifty inspection parameters published.The mathematical characteristic data is compared to one or more targetsto determine whether the position of the first or second web componentneeds to be adjusted. In one embodiment, information exchange 1110provides the average and standard deviation information to drive system1468, and drive system 1468 determines whether a change is needed. Inanother embodiment, information exchange 1110 determines the need for achange and provides an indication to drive system 1468 as to how much ofa change to make. It should be further understood that informationexchange 1110 and drive system 1468 can share a common computer systemfor processing purposes.

[0210] A second operational example directed to FIG. 11 involves usingcamera inspection system 1464 as part of an outer control loop forcontrolling one or both web guides 1460,1462. In this way, web guides1460,1462 provide pre-joinder web alignment control to maintain shortterm control. The outer control loop provides long-term control. Morespecifically, camera inspection system 1464 captures images of compositeweb 1458 (e.g., corresponding to each product produced or a statisticalsample thereof). Inspection system 1464 detects the alignment/placementof the components of the composite web and publishes an inspectionparameter accordingly. Information exchange 1110 accumulates a pluralityof published inspection parameters and determines a mathematicalcharacteristic of the accumulated plurality. In one embodiment, thedetermined mathematical characteristic comprises an average and/orstandard deviation. The determined mathematical characteristic iscompared to a target to determine whether the detectedalignment/placement of the component parts of composite web 1458 isacceptable. If the difference between the detected placement and thetarget is unacceptable, it is next determined which component is out ofalignment. Based on this latter determination, drive system 1468 adjustsa position of web guide 1460 and/or 1462 such that the alignment of thecomponent parts of composite web 1458 returns to an acceptable level.Such adjustment may include, for example, mechanically and/orelectrically adjusting a sensor associated with one or both of webguides 1460,1462.

[0211] One particular operating example involves adjusting a web guideposition using guides mounted on movable slides or arms (e.g.,mechanically translatable). In this example, drive system 1468 adjuststhe position of a rod on which web guide 1460 and/or web guide 1462 ismounted. The determination of which web guide, which web componentand/or which web to move can be determined by a logic filter such as afilter for measuring the placement of each web or web component relativeto a third component or a fixed point in the field of view of theinspecting camera (1464). Another example involves adjusting the hookplacement relative to the outside edge of the side panel location. Thehook web can be automatically adjusted by using a logic filter to steera guide that feeds the hook into a cut and place module. As a furtherexample, the logic filter may determine whether the first web component1452 only should be selectively adjusted by adjusting guide 1460,whether the second web component 1454 only should be selectivelyadjusted by adjusting guide 1462 or whether both the first and secondweb components 1452 and 1454 should be simultaneously selectivelyadjusted by adjusting both guides 1460 and 1462. In this example, thedrive system 1468 would be responsive to the logic filter to implementthe determination of the logic filter.

[0212] In one preferred embodiment, information exchange 1110 providesan average and standard deviation of the plurality of inspectionparameters to drive system 1468. Drive system 1468 compares one or bothof these values to a target(s). Based on this comparison, drive system1468 determines whether and by how much to adjust a position of one orboth web guides 1460, 1462. It should be appreciated that informationexchange 1464 can be configured to compare the determined mathematicalcharacteristic to the target and to determine which web guide to adjustand by how much.

[0213] Also, if the mathematical characteristic deviates from the targetto the point that an erroneous signal is suspected and/or web guidingerrors are very large, drive system 1468 can be programmed to trigger a“blow-off” to clean any lint or other obscuring particles that may haveaccumulated on a web guide sensor.

[0214] One advantage of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 11 is thatmachine vision systems are used to detect discrete and/or integralcomponent placements and/or irregular edges that conventional web guidesand web edge detector systems cannot detect. Also, the inspection systemneed not be located near the point of web control (e.g., near the webguides). For example, typical web guides with light bar or ultrasonicedge detectors do not accurately detect component placement in compositewebs when the components are of similar densities, have similar lighttransmittance characteristics, or edges that are internal to a productsuch as edges in a closed portion of a training pant.

[0215] Similarly, typical edge detector web guiding systems may not besuitable for use with webs having irregular edges and/or “C-folding”edges where the web rolls over on itself. Traditional prior art webguides simply guide off of the folded edge, which can potentially placea component in an incorrect location. With a machine vision system asthe detector (rather than or in addition to a typical edge detector),web width measurements are possible. It should now be appreciated thatweb width will change significantly if the web C-folds. In such acircumstance, the machine vision system can trigger a warning such asprovide an alarm and/or effect automatic machine shutdown that may nothave been triggered by an edge detector. For example, the drive systemmay include software which is a monitoring subsystem which monitors aparameter, such as width, of the composite web. The software wouldcompare the monitored parameter to a preset range, which range wouldexclude C-folds. The software would provides an indication when themonitored width is outside the preset range (e.g., a monitored widthbelow the range may correspond to a C-fold condition), wherein theindication is an alarm or a command to effect a shutdown of the webguiding system.

[0216] For example, composite web products, including disposableabsorbent garments such as training pants, may require components havingdie cut outs with one or more angled edges. Typical edge detectors usedwith web guides do not adequately detect discontinuous webedges/components. A photoeye can be placed to detect the edge, but ifthe web moves in the cross direction a photoeye detecting scheme canlead to an incorrect conclusion that the die cuts (as opposed to themoving web) are out of position, possibly resulting in an incorrectadjustment. This problem occurs because the measurement is relative tothe fixed position of the photoeye. A machine vision system used as partof a camera inspection system—such as system 1104 (FIG. 4A), system 1404(FIG. 9), or system 1464 (FIG. 11)—can measure an absolute position ofthe die cut relative to its associated product component, instead ofrelative to the fixed sensor (e.g., photoeye) position. As an example,infant diapers typically include two fasteners, which may comprise apair hook and loop fastener systems positioned on opposite sides of thediaper. These fasteners typically have an ear portion with a finger tabarea. In one manufacturing process, these “diaper ears” are providedfrom a roll of material that is die cut to form the ears. A cameravision system positioned immediately downstream from the die cutter caninspect the width of irregular edges to ensure that the ears are cutcorrectly (e.g., to the middle). Such a camera vision system (or anothervision system) can be positioned before the die cutter as well toprovide web guiding improvements before the die cutting operation.

[0217] Referring still to FIG. 11, it should be appreciated that a webguiding system, such as system 1450, can be configured to adjust theposition of the web to be guided (e.g., first web component 1452) byreference to a variety of reference points. For example, web guide 1460can be configured to adjust the position of first web component 1452 byreference to a reference point. Such a reference point can be a fixedpoint (e.g. a mounting associated with web guide 1460), a referencepoint associated with the web being guided (e.g., a position of periodicreference mark placed on first web component 1452, as detected byinspection system 1464), and so on. Similarly, web guiding can occur byreference to multiple reference points, or by adjusting the position ofone web component (e.g., second web component 1454) relative to aposition of another web component (e.g., first web component 1452).Other references are possible.

[0218] One of the advantages of aspects of the systems and methods ofthe present disclosure is the ability to steer a web relative to adownstream inspection. In typical prior art systems, the web detectorand web guide need to be located relatively close to one another tooperate effectively to provide short term control. By using visionsystem information, it is possible to locate a sensor at a greaterdistance from the web guide and still maintain adequate long term webalignment control. Also, one sensor/camera system can detect theplacement of multiple components and, as such, can control multiplewebs. Further, using machine vision systems for web guiding allows websteering based on product (or process) attributes, as opposed to guidingto a sensor placement. In the context of prefastened training pants suchattributes include, for example, die cut out placement and fasteneroverlap. In general, the drive system adjusts the position of the feedsystem at a particular point along the path and the vision inspectionsystem captures an image at a particular point along the path which isdownstream from the particular point along the path at which the drivesystem adjusts the position of the feed system.

[0219] Alternatively, it is also contemplated that the drive systemadjusts the position of the feed system at a particular point along thepath and the vision inspection system captures an image at a particularpoint along the path which is upstream of the particular point along thepath at which the drive system adjusts the position of the feed system.For example, it is contemplated that a fastening process may be steeredaccording to a product. Parts of the fastening process may be movedtowards or away from the process centerline. If one side is at targetand the other side is away from target, fold fingers on the non-targetside may be moved to bring that side to target.

[0220] In addition, depending on the next, downstream process which willreceive the web, it may be advantageous to guide the web according to aparameter of the next process. For example, a web may be guided into ajoining process in which case a parameter related to joined parts may beused to guide the web. As other examples, a web may be guided into acutting, folding or fastening process so that a cut, a fold or afastened component or components, respectively, may be used to guide theweb.

[0221] Further, disposable absorbent garments, including training pants20, are commonly formed from composite webs of material, formed fromspunbond/poly laminates. Traditional web guides and detectors can beused to control the delivery of each component, but they do not providecontrol over the placement of the resulting composite web. A machinevision system, however, can capture one or more images of the compositeweb (e.g., composite web 1458) and, using grayscale differences, detectdifferent edges of the spunbond and the poly to determine properalignment in the composite web. Thus, having a downstream machine visionsystem (e.g., a full product inspection system) provides distinctadvantages over the prior art.

[0222] Information Display, Alarming, and Trouble Shooting

[0223] Referring again to FIG. 4A, in another aspect, information system1110 is useful as a system for providing information to an operatorassociated with production line 1102. For example, information regardinginspection data can be displayed to the operator on operator interface1118. Such information includes indications of the values of propertiesof the various components and aspects inspected by inspection system1104 (e.g., an amount of overlap between fastening components 82, 84 ofa training pant), an alarm indication when an inspected property fallsoutside of a desired limit or is trending toward a limit or otherwiserequires the operator's attention, a troubleshooting indicationprompting the operator to correct a detected problem (or that anautomatic troubleshooting correction has taken place), and so on. Such asystem allows the operator to react earlier than prior art systems andreduces the occurrence of automatic culls or other waste and delay.Similarly, when an automatic cull occurs, the operator is better able todetermine exactly what measurement likely caused the cull.

[0224] In one embodiment, operator interface 1118 comprises a personalcomputer operating pursuant to a commercially available operating systemsuch as Microsoft® Windows NT, and running one or more of a bundle ofindustrial and process information software applications such asWonderware® Factory Suite™ 2000, available from Wonderware Corporation.Such an industrial and process information application preferablyprovides one or more of the following capabilities: display of processinformation such as inspection data (including information derived frominspection data), compare process information data to targets, real timerelational database capabilities, and so on.

[0225] An operational description directed to inspecting an amount ofhook-to-loop overlap between fastening components 82, 84 of fasteningsystem 80 of a child's training pant 20 is instructive (FIGS. 1A-10Dillustrate schematically such a fastening system). Inspection system1104 (e.g., a machine vision system) inspects each training pantproduced during a production run to identify an amount of overlapbetween fastening components 82, 84. Periodically, inspection system1104 publishes an inspection parameter indicative of a characteristic ofthe inspected component—in this example, an amount of overlap detected.Information exchange 1110 obtains the published inspection parametersand, based thereon, provides a process display parameter for use byoperator interface 1118. In one embodiment, information exchange 1110accumulates a plurality of published inspection parameters correspondingto a plurality of training pants produced during a segment of a theproduction run (e.g., every 50 training pants produced). In such anembodiment, information exchange preferably computes a mathematicalcharacteristic (e.g., an average and/or standard deviation) of theaccumulated plurality of inspection parameters, such that the processdisplay parameter corresponds to the mathematical characteristic.

[0226] Advantageously, the process display parameter, which is relatedto the inspected characteristic, is useful in a variety of ways. Forexample, with this information, operator interface 1118 can display anumeric and/or graphic of the inspected characteristic. Morespecifically, operator interface 1118 can display an indication of theinspected characteristic relative to a target such as, for example, arange of acceptable values or a trend line or a box-whisker plot. Withthis information, the operator can anticipate when a problem might occurand take corrective steps to avoid the problem.

[0227] Preferably, information exchange 1110 filters the information itreceives from inspection system 1104. For example, and as discussedabove, certain machine vision inspection systems rely on tools fordetermining positions of components within a captured image. If aninspection failure occurs, the vision system preferably provides anindication of the failure, in which case information exchange 1110 candisregard non-trustworthy inspection data associated with inspectionfailures. Information exchange 1110 may also filter incoming informationto determine if the information is so far out-of-bounds as to beuntrustworthy. Such untrustworthy information can be discarded and/orused to determine if the inspection system requires attention. It shouldbe understood, that such filtering can also be accomplished by operatorinterface 1118, with information exchange 1110 simply passing unfiltereddata.

[0228] It is also possible to display indications of a plurality ofinspected components—using inspection system 1104 or multiple inspectionsystems. In some circumstances, it is desirable to correlate theinformation regarding the various inspected components (e.g., to aparticular training pant produced or to a group of training pantsproduced in sequence) so that relationships between components can bemonitored. Similarly, display indications can be grouped according tovarious criteria such as, for example, by inspection device (orlocation) and/or by the component being inspected. These types ofgroupings would have benefits in troubleshooting problems. Other displaygrouping criteria include grouping by a particular operational needs orevents, such as grouping information based on an automatic cull event orwhen a new supply of material is spliced into the production line.

[0229] As mentioned above, apart from displaying inspection-related dataon operator interface 1118, information system 1100 can also provide analarming system. For example, if the amount of overlap between fasteningcomponents 82, 84 exceeds a target threshold, an alarm is automaticallytriggered. In one embodiment, operator interface 1118 makes thisdetermination. But such a determination could occur elsewhere in system1110, most notably information exchange 1110. An alarm may simplycomprise a particular indication on operator interface 1118 (e.g., aflashing number or graphic, a change in size or color of a displayednumber or graphic, and so on). An alarm can also include a signal to analarming device 1130 associated with operator interface 1118. Alarmingdevices include, for example, sound devices (e.g., horns or buzzers),lights, and/or communication devices such as a pager, a computer, apersonal digital assistant, a mobile telephone, a regular telephone, andso on.

[0230] Information system 1110 can further provide automatedtrouble-shooting support capabilities. For example, in addition to (orrather than) providing alarm indications, information system 1110 cancompare inspection data to target data to determine whether a correctiveaction is required. The term corrective action is intended to includepreventative actions as well. In some cases, such as adjusting setpoints or blowing off dust on sensors, the corrective action ispreferably implemented automatically, without operator input. In othercases, a recommended corrective action is presented to an operator(e.g., a series of steps displayed on operator interface 1118). Stillfurther, the information system can be configured to track the number oftimes a particular corrective action has been recommended/initiated.

[0231]FIG. 12 is a schematic representation of an exemplary automatedtrouble-shooting system (referred to generally therein as system 1500).The example illustrated relates to inspecting prefastened, refastenabletraining pants, such as training pants 20 described above, but theprinciples disclosed herein are applicable to the manufacture of a muchbroader range of products. In this example, a multiple camera inspectionsystem (e.g., system 1104 of FIG. 4A) comprises three or more machinevision inspection systems positioned at various points in themanufacturing process. A first machine vision system 1502 is positionedto inspect a composite web of material 1504 on a product assemblyconveyor. The composite web of material 1504 is formed by aforming/joinder process (e.g., a lamination process) 1506 carried out ontwo supplied web components 1508,1510, such as that described withrespect to system 1450 in FIG. 11. In one embodiment, the first machinevision system 1502 is referred to as a Product Assembly Conveyor (“PAC”)linescan inspection system because it uses a vision camera mounted nearthe conveyor where the product is assembled. In this location, visionsystem 1502 is positioned to acquire images of each product beingproduced before the addition of an outer cover assembly.

[0232] A second machine vision system 1512 is positioned to inspect eachtraining pant produced at a position 1514 after fastening system 80 isadded to the side panels of each training pant by a fastening systemapplication process 1516. In this context, the second machine visionsystem 1512 may also be referred to as a full product inspection system1512. FIG. 12 schematically illustrates the supply of fasteningcomponents by reference character 1518. After the fastening systemapplication process 1516, the web of products proceeds to a fasteningengagement process 1519 where the fastening components are engaged toform a prefastened product. A third machine vision system 1520 ispositioned downstream of the fastening engagement process 1519 and isreferred to as an assembled fastening system inspection system 1519 or afastening seam inspection system because it inspects the fastening seamof the completed training pants 1522 after fastening engagement process1519.

[0233] Preferably, machine vision systems 1502, 1512, and 1520communicate with information exchange 1110 and/or operator interface1118 via a communication network such as network 1124. Other forms ofdata/information transfer are also possible, such as dedicated lines ordaisy chained communications.

[0234] In general, machine vision systems 1502, 1512, and 1520 publishinspection data, such as that already described herein relating to theinspected components of each training pant 1522 produced, for use byinformation exchange 1110. In this context, information exchange 1110comprises a logic system that accumulates inspection data (e.g., fromthe fifty most recently inspected products) from machine vision systems1502, 1512, and 1520 and determines an average and standard deviationcalculation of the accumulated data. The average and/or standarddeviation data is thereafter incorporated into a spreadsheet (e.g.,Microsoft®) Excel) where a series of logic statements sort theinformation (e.g., by comparing the average and/or standard deviationdata to reference target values), to produce recommended correctiveaction(s), if necessary. The recommended corrective action(s) can bedisplayed to an operator on operator interface 1118 and/or automaticallyperformed. For example, for some problems, the corrective actionincludes a series of steps to be performed by the operator or anothertechnician. For other problems, the corrective action can beautomatically initiated (e.g., initiating a blow off procedure to cleana photodetector). If the logic recommends multiple corrective actions,the logic preferably organizes the recommended actions to prioritize theorder in which the actions are displayed to the operator and/orimplemented automatically. It should be understood that informationexchange 1110 can also be configured to simply pass inspection data(e.g., “raw” data, or averages and standard deviations based onaccumulated data) information to operator interface 1118. In such acase, operator interface 1118 preferably incorporates the logic systemfunctionality. It should further be understood that the logic functionsmay be implemented directly in dedicated software.

[0235] For example, in one embodiment, it is contemplated that a VisualBasic (VB) application program may be used to read data from thereflective memory network, compute an average and standard deviation,and then publish the summary statistics back out to the reflectivememory. The summary statistics would then be available for display, suchas by Wonderware® Factory Suite™ 2000, available from WonderwareCorporation, or available for analysis by a logic routine. In thisembodiment, the VB application program may perform the functionsperformed by the DLL files noted herein.

[0236] The foregoing description, focusing on a spreadsheet-basedapproach is provided for exemplary purposes only. In one embodiment,rather than using a commercially available spreadsheet, a logic programis used. For example, and as described above, such a logic program canbe written in RSLogix™ 5000 software and run on a SoftLogix™ PC platformwithin information exchange 1110. A dynamic link library (DLL) file(e.g., in C language) retrieves inspection data from network 1124 (e.g.,a reflective memory network) and places the retrieved data into a dataarray. Another C language DLL performs mathematical manipulations, asdesired, on the data array. For example, in one embodiment a DLLperforms statistical calculations on the data array such as determiningaverages and standard deviations. Thereafter, the RSLogix™ program usesthe statistical information to perform the desired functions (e.g.,determining quality by comparing the statistical information to atarget, determining an alarm conditions, determining process settingchanges, and so on), in accordance with the present disclosure, so thatrecommended actions can be published to the machine operator and/orautomatic commands may be sent to the machine to make a change.

[0237] Referring still to FIG. 12, in one exemplary operationalscenario, joinder process 1506 is a lamination process for laminatingweb component 1510 to web component 1508 to form composite web 1504.Machine vision system 1502 periodically captures images of composite web1504 corresponding to substantially a training pants being producedduring a production run (e.g., a given time period during a productioncycle). Machine vision system 1502 determines the placement of webcomponent 1510 relative to web component 1508 based on grayscaledifferences in the captured images. Information exchange 1110accumulates the inspection data published by machine vision system 1502(e.g., for the fifty most recent inspections) and determines an averageand standard deviation of the accumulated data. The average and standarddeviation data are stored in the data array and logic statementsdetermine whether component 1510 is positioned correctly relative tocomponent 1508 by comparing one or both of the average and standarddeviation values to a target reference. If the logic determines that thealignment of components 1510 relative to 1508 is unacceptable, the logicwill recommend an adjustment of a position of component 1510 prior tojoinder process 1506 (e.g., by a directing a web guide change or bydirecting a steering correction of a conveyor supplying component 1510).The logic makes this recommendation because it is programmed to knowthat component 1510 is applied to component 1508 and it is normallypreferable to move the object being attached (in this case 1510) to a“base” component (in this case 1508). Advantageously, by recommending aproper order of corrective actions prevents an operator from “tailchasing” and reduces the likelihood that a corrective action merelyfixes a symptom rather than a source of a problem.

[0238] With the benefit of the present disclosure, it should beunderstood that there exist a number of ways to identify a recommendedcorrective action. Three exemplary approaches will now be described. Afirst approach uses the calculated averages of accumulated inspectiondata. The averages are imported into a spreadsheet and logic statementscompare the averages to target values and associated tolerance range(s).Based on a difference between an average and a target, the logic isprogrammed to recommend and/or initiate a corrective action. With suchan approach, a single item of inspection data that is out of boundswould not trigger a corrective action because the use of averages tendsto smooth out spurious occurrences. A second approach for identifyingrecommended corrective actions uses a “percent defective” determinationbased on both the calculated averages and standard deviations of theaccumulated inspection data from the relevant machine vision system(s).Thus, the logic compares the actual percent defective in a given sample(e.g., the fifty most recent inspections) to a target percent defectiveto determine if and where any corrective action is required.

[0239] A third approach for identifying corrective recommendedcorrective actions compares both the average and standard deviationagainst their respective targets. The average deviating from its targetmay indicate that a different corrective action is required than if thestandard deviation deviates from its target, or that a differentcorrective action is required than if both numbers deviate from theirtargets. For example, referring to the previously discussed example ofusing photoeyes to detect pant spacing after the final cut off, a highstandard deviation of spacing may signify a belt slip issue while a highor low average spacing can signify that a process change (perhapsmachine draw) needs to be made.

[0240] It should also be understood that that the systems and methodsdisclosed herein are not limited to using mathematical/statisticaldeterminations in the forms of averages, standard deviations, andpercent defectives. With the benefit of the present disclosure, it ispossible to choose other mathematical/statistical calculations that willyield acceptable results in a given application.

[0241] Both of these approaches provide advantages over the prior art.For example, with even a small number of inspection data points tomonitor, it is difficult for a process operator to track such data as itis being presented, mentally process the information, determine whethera corrective action is needed, and then determine what corrective actionto take.

[0242] It should be appreciated that in one embodiment, informationexchange 1110 simply supplies inspection information (e.g., an averageand/or standard deviation of the fifty most recent measurements of theoverlap between fastening components 82, 84) to operator interface 1118,and operator interface 1118 compares that data to one or more targetsand determines what to display and how to display it, whether an alarmcondition is triggered, whether to filter the data, whether atroubleshooting action is required, and so on. In another embodiment,however, information exchange 1110 makes one or more of the foregoingdeterminations and simply passes a parameter or command message tooperator interface 1118 which thereafter displays that which has beencommanded by information exchange 1110. Further, although it ispreferred that each product produced be inspected, the foregoingautomated trouble-shooting system can be effectively implemented using asampling set such as a set based on a statistical sampling plan.

[0243]FIGS. 13A and 13B are logic flow diagrams illustrating one method(indicated generally by reference 1550) of providing processinformation, suitable for use in connection with an information systemsuch as that illustrated in FIGS. 4 and/or 12. More specifically, FIG.13A illustrates, in logic flow format, a method for providing processinformation to an operator in real time. Such a method is suitable foruse in connection with a manufacturing production line producingcomposite products, such as disposable absorbent garments, from asequential addition of component parts. At block 1552, an inspectionsystem (or a plurality of inspection systems—such as those illustratedin FIG. 4 or 12) inspects one or more component aspects of disposableabsorbent garments produced during a production run. Thereafter, atblock 1554, the inspection system provides an inspection parameter thatindicates a characteristic of the inspected component. For example, ifthe inspection system is configured to inspect an amount of overlapbetween fastening components 82, 84 of training pants 20 produced duringa production run, the inspection system preferably provides a numericvalue of the amount of overlap detected in each training pant inspected.At blocks 1556, 1558 an information exchange (e.g., information exchange1110) obtains and stores the inspection parameters provided by theinspection system. As indicated at block 1558, in one embodiment, theinformation exchange computes an average and standard deviation of anaccumulated plurality of inspection parameters corresponding to aplurality of inspected products (e.g., the fifty most recently inspectedproducts).

[0244] Blocks 1557 and 1560 are intended to illustrate that inspectiondata may be filtered at one or more points in the method, and based onvarious filter criteria. For example, in one embodiment the informationexchange disregards (or discounts) inspection parameters that falloutside of a range of acceptable values, indicating that the inspectionparameter is suspect. Similarly, the information exchange can disregardinspection parameter data if the inspection system indicates that aninspection failure relating to the data has occurred. In anotherembodiment, such filtering occurs elsewhere, such as at operatorinterface 1118.

[0245] At block 1562, one or more process display parameters aredetermined based on the inspection data. The process displayparameter(s) indicates what information should be displayed to anoperator, e.g., on operator interface 1118 (block 1564, 1566). Suchinformation includes numerical and/or graphical indications of theinspection parameter, indications of the average and/or standarddeviation of the accumulated plurality of inspection parameters,comparisons to one or more targets, alarm indications and messages,trouble-shooting recommendations (e.g., corrective actions and automatedcorrective responses), and so on. In one embodiment, the processinformation display determines the process display parameter. In anotherembodiment, operator interface 1118 determines the process displayparameter.

[0246]FIG. 13B further illustrates, in flow diagram form, exemplarymethods for providing alarm and trouble-shooting indications (blocks1570, 1580). Referring first to providing alarm indications, at block1572 the inspection data is compared to a target. This includescomparing the inspection parameters directly, as well as comparinginformation derived therefrom, including average and standard deviationsand display parameters. If the inspection data as compared to the targetis unacceptable, an alarm condition is triggered at block 1574. Forexample, if a particular item of inspection data is trending toward alimit, the operator may be notified so that he/she can take correctiveaction before the limit is met.

[0247] Because the present method may be used in connection with asystem that inspects a large plurality of components, it is possiblethat multiple alarms will be triggered at or near the same time. Thus,at block 1576, the alarms are prioritized according to importance. Forexample, an alarm indicating a critical failure would take priority overan alarm indicating that an item is trending toward a limit.

[0248] As another example, the system is programmed to prioritize alarmsto correspond to the sequence of manufacturing steps involved in makingthe product. A more particular example involves alarming in connectionwith the manufacture of prefastened training pants. In one embodiment ofsuch an example, alarming is based generally on the sequence of stepsfor constructing a training pant. This approach translates into alarmingbased on the location of inspection points along the manufacturingprocess. More specifically, and still referring to the example ofprefastened training pants, fastening components 82, 84 of training pant20 are applied to side panels 34,134. If both side panels 34, 134 andfastening components 82, 84 were misplaced, the alarms would beprioritized in order of unit operations in the pant manufacturingprocess. Thus, the alarm for the side panel 34, 134 placement would beprogrammed to have a higher priority than the alarm for fastenercomponent 82, 84 placement because side panels are applied earlier inthe pant construction process.

[0249] Still another example involving the manufacture of prefastenedtraining pants is instructive at this point. To alarm for hook 84 crossdirection (CD) placement relative to side panel 34, the program willhave checked, in the following order: the separation of the inside edgeof the side panel 34, the width of each of the side panels 34, and thenthe distance from the inside edge of the hook 84 to the outside edge ofthe side panel 34. Similarly, to alarm for hook 84 machine direction(MD) placement, the alarm program checks in the following order: MDplacement of the side panels relative to the absorbent assembly 44, theMD placement of the panels with respect to each other, the hook length,and finally the hook MD placement relative to the edge of the sidepanel. In these cases, if all of these checks result in an indication ofan erroneous placement, the program prioritizes the alarms to alarm thefirst failed check first and the last failed check last.

[0250] Block 1578 indicates that the alarm indications can take on anyof a number of forms. In a simple form, an alarm is simply an indicationon a display associated with operator interface 1118. Other indicationsinclude audible alarms, flashing lights, and/or alarm messages sent toelectronic equipment such as telephones, mobile telephones, pagers,computers (e.g., email), and so on.

[0251] Referring still to FIG. 13B, block 1580 relates to a method ofproviding an automated trouble-shooting response. At block 1582, theinspection data is compared to a target. This can include comparing theinspection parameters directly, as well as comparing information derivedtherefrom. Preferably, the comparison is done in either an informationexchange (e.g., information exchange 1110) or an operator interfacecomputer (e.g., operator interface 1118). If the comparison indicates anerror condition (e.g., a misalignment of components), a correctiveaction is indicated to an operator, such as on a display associated withoperator interface 1118 (block 1586). Alternatively, or in addition todisplaying a corrective action, an automatic response, such as a machineset point adjustment or a conveyor steering command, is triggered.

[0252] Providing troubleshooting responses and/or alarm indications mayalso be accomplished by identifying relationships between inspectionparameters and machine settings. For example, after inspecting an aspectof the composite product being constructed, one or more componentattributes may be automatically identified by the inspection system. Thecomponent attribute is obtained by a system such as information exchange1110 that also determines a machine setting associated with theconstruction process. If the component attribute falls outside ofacceptable limits (e.g., as determined at block 1582 of FIG. 13B), theinformation exchange can identify the troubleshooting recommendation(see block 1584 of FIG. 13B) as a function of an identified relationshipbetween the component attribute and the determined machine setting. Sucha capability can be used to identify relationships between one componentattribute and one or more machine settings (including settings frommultiple machines), as well as between multiple component attributes andmultiple machine settings. For example, machine vacuum and/or blowoffsettings may be related to one or more inspected component attributes toidentify and/or isolate a troubleshooting action. Using refastenabletraining pants as an example, if a hook cut length problem is detected(e.g., at block 1582 of FIG. 13B), information exchange 1110 can checkto see if the associated vacuum setting is within an expected range.Thus, a relationship between the hook cut length problem and the vacuumset point can be identified to the operator and/or the vacuum settingcan be automatically adjusted in a direction determined to alleviate thedetected hook length problem.

[0253]FIG. 14 is a logic flow diagram illustrating one method (indicatedgenerally by reference 1600) of providing an automated trouble-shootingcapability, suitable for use in connection with an information systemsuch as that illustrated in FIGS. 4 and/or 12. In particular, the method1600 is suitable for use in connection with a manufacturing processhaving at least one machine operating at a set point and producingdisposable absorbent garments from a sequential addition of componentparts during a production run. At block 1602, an inspection system(e.g., one or more of the inspection systems illustrated and describedin connection with FIG. 4 or 12) inspects a first aspect ofsubstantially all of the garments being manufactured and provides afirst inspection parameter correlated to an inspected garment. Forexample, in FIG. 12, inspection system 1502 inspects a composite web1504 formed by the joinder of web components 1508, 1510 and detects ameasurement of the alignment of components 1508, 1510. At block 1604, asecond aspect of the product being produced is inspected and a secondinspection parameter is provided.

[0254] Using FIG. 12 again as an example, inspection system 1520comprises a full product machine vision system for inspecting thefinally assembled product, in this case a child's training pant(reference 1522 in FIG. 12) having a refastenable fastening system 80(see FIG. 1). Inspection system 1520 preferably is capable of detectinga plurality of points/characteristics of each training pant produced (ora statistical sample set of each product produced). For example,inspection system 1520 can inspect the final product 1522 to determineif the portion of that product formed from composite web 1504 iscorrectly aligned. Based on the first and second inspection parameters,a logic system (e.g., logic residing in either information exchange1110, operator interface 1118, or elsewhere) determines whether acorrective action is required.

[0255] Advantageously, by using inspection data from more than oneinspection source, the logic can better pinpoint the source of possibleproblems. For example, if the inspection parameter(s) published byinspection system 1502 (FIG. 12) relating to a given product (or groupof products) does not indicate a misalignment with respect to componentsof composite web 1504, but inspection system 1520 detects an alignmenterror in the final product (or group of products), the logic system candetermine that the problem most likely occurred downstream from joinderprocess 1506.

[0256] Referring still to FIG. 14, blocks 1608 and 1610 indicate that inone embodiment, the “raw” inspection data is accumulated. Mathematicalcharacteristics of the accumulated data (e.g., averages and standarddeviations) are calculated and it is these mathematical characteristicsthat are analyzed by the logic system to determine whether a correctiveaction is required. It should be appreciated that the use of data from aplurality of inspection events reduces the likelihood that spuriouserrors and/or erroneous readings will trigger a corrective action. Itshould also be appreciated that the use of data from a plurality ofinspection events allows for alarming based on variability of inspectedevents, instead of or in addition to alarming based on deviation fromset point.

[0257] Once a corrective action is identified/triggered (block 1612),the method proceeds to block 1614 and presents an indication of thecorrective action to an operator (e.g., on operator interface 1118)and/or initiates an automatic set point adjustment (e.g., steers aconveyor or adjusts a cutting process) at block 1616.

[0258] At this point, it is instructive to note that the informationexchange concept disclosed and described herein provides a powerfulinnovation in that it makes possible the ability to relate multiple datapoints to each other, whether those data points originate from a singleinspection system, multiple inspection systems, or othermanufacturing-related databases (e.g., raw material data, waste/delaydata, quality data, machine set point data, and/or registration data).Thus, while obtaining data from multiple locations is possible, it isnot critical. In other words, it is first important to obtain thedesired data (e.g., inspection data), and then important to process theobtained data points for decision making purposes. In this regard, theinformation exchange facilitates an expert system that is programmed tofollow a logical analytical process (developed by human experts).Advantageously, the use of computer processors allows for theperformance of the necessary calculations, comparisons, and logicalassessments on a large number of data points considerably faster thanhumanly possible.

[0259] Referring again to FIG. 12, an operational example based onmanufacturing training pants is described. In this example it is assumedthat it is desirable, from a quality perspective, to cull products inwhich the hook 84 is not placed within a preferred distance from an edgeof the side panel 34 near the leg edge of the training pant 20.Notifying an operator associated with the manufacture of the product ofthe proper corrective action may include processing information frommore than one inspection system. In the illustrated embodiment, a firstmachine vision system 1502 detects the placement of side panels 34 and134 with respect to some other component of the pant being constructed,such as, for example, absorbent assembly 44, and preferably from aplurality of inspection events. By using a plurality of inspectionevents, it is possible to obtain an average value (e.g., for the fiftymost recent inspection events). A second machine vision system 1512 ispositioned to inspect each training pant produced at a position 1514after fastening component 84 is added to the side panels (by fasteningsystem application process 1516). For instance, the second machinevision system 1512 detects a measurement of the length of fasteningcomponent 84 along the longitudinal axis 48. The same inspection system1512 can also be used to detect a position of fastening component 84relative to the edge of side panel material 34 at a position near theleg opening of the assembled pant. A third machine vision system 1520 ispositioned to measure the length along the longitudinal axis 48 of sidepanel 84. The measurements from one or more of these plurality ofinspection events at each inspection system (1502,1512, and 1520) may bepassed to a computer system (e.g., information exchange 1110) capable ofcalculating averages and standard deviations of the accumulated data,comparing the calculated values to set points and/or quality limits todetermine a percent defective, and to determine if any of the fourmeasurements taken by the three inspection systems falls outside ofquality limits. In one embodiment, a logic system associated withinformation exchange 1110 prioritizes the above-noted four measurementsin the following order: (1) side panel machine direction (MD) placement;(2) fastening component (e.g., hook) length; (3) fastening component(hook) placement relative to side panel; and (4) front panel length. Ifside panel MD placement is incorrect, placement is phased in a directionselected to correct the MD placement. If MD placement is satisfactory,then the hook length is analyzed and corrected, if necessary. If thehook length is satisfactory, then the MD placement of the hook isanalyzed and, if incorrect, the alarming system could be triggered tosuggest a corrective action. If the hook MD placement is satisfactory,then the front panel length is analyzed. If this measurement isunsatisfactory, the product cut off section of the machine can be phased(either automatically and/or by notifying the operator of a correctiveaction) to correct that front panel length. If all four of these checks“pass,” the hook is considered placed correctly and the pant is notculled.

[0260] At this point, it is instructive to identify yet another exampleof the power of the presently disclosed systems and methods tointerrelate data from a variety of systems and information sources.Information from multiple camera inspection systems (e.g., inspectionsystem 1104 of FIG. 4A) can be combined to automatically interpret thelocations of various components of a composite product formed by thesequential addition of component parts, such as a child's training pant.One example of such a capability involves controlling placement of afinal cut off, measured as a length of an endseal, using informationfrom three vision systems: (1) a product assembly conveyor visionsystem; (2) a full product vision system; and (3) a fastening visionsystem. The product assembly conveyor vision system can be used tocontrol longitudinal placement of the leading edge of the side panelrelative to the trailing edge of an absorbent pad (see absorbentassembly 44 of FIGS. 1-3). This approach ensures that the side panel isput in a correct longitudinal place on the product being manufactured,in this case a training pant. Next, the full product inspection systemcamera measures the longitudinal length from the leading edge of theside panel to the trailing edge of the side panel at the leg cut out.Third, the final cut off can be controlled by measuring the longitudinallength of the front panel at the fastening vision system camera. Thus,knowing that the panel is the correct length and is in the correctlocation relative to the pad, it is possible to place the final cut offin the right location, measured by the front panel length, andinterpolate that the endseal is the correct length. Advantageously, inone embodiment information exchange 1110 performs these calculations fordisplaying the relative measurements to an operator. Also, because thereis no practicable automatic method for detecting endseal lengthdirectly, process information exchange 1110 can perform the mathematicalcalculations, based on the measured data, to determine by inferencewhether the endseal needs to be moved. With this information, theoperator can make an adjustment, if necessary, or an automaticadjustment may be triggered. In other words, the inspection system 1104detects the relative placement of first and second components and ofsecond and third components. The information exchange 1110 infers therelative placement of the first and third components from the relativeplacement of first and second components and from the relative placementof second and third components. The information exchange 1110 uses theinferred relative placement of the first and third components forguiding the first or third components.

[0261] The following are examples of inferring the placement ofcomponents and using the inferred information for guiding system controlor for controlling its operation. In a more general case, the inspectionsystem would detect the relative placement of first and secondcomponents and of second and third components. In response, theinformation exchange system would infer the relative placement of thefirst and third components from the relative placement of first andsecond components and of second and third components. The informationexchange system would use the inferred relative place of the first andthird components for guiding the first or third components. In aspecific case, an upstream vision camera detects a location of component1 relative to component 3 (both on web 1). After a joining process, adownstream vision camera detects a location of component 2 relative tocomponent 3. In this example, component 1 cannot be seen by thedownstream camera because it is beneath component 2. However, theplacement of component 1 relative to component 2 is an attribute ofinterest. The system infers the placement of component 1 relative tocomponent 2 by performing mathematical operations on the vision systemmeasurements provided by the upstream and downstream cameras, e.g., byknowing the placement of component 1 relative to component 3, andcomponent 2 relative to component 3, the placement of component 1relative to component 2 can be inferred.

[0262] It should be appreciated that the systems and methods disclosedherein, including those directed to information displaying, alarming,and trouble-shooting, can be based on data associated with inspectingone or more component parts associated with one or more products beingconstructed, as well as, data associated with inspecting multipleaspects of a single component part (e.g., using multiple vision systemsto check the placement of a component part).

[0263] It should further be appreciated from the foregoing examples thatalarming notifications and trouble-shooting/set point change actions(including those automated and those indicated to an operator on anoperator display) are preferably prioritized. For example, it ispreferable to provide alarm notifications in a logical order.Preferably, the order is chosen in terms of importance. One way toorganize alarms and/or trouble-shooting actions is by order ofoccurrence. More preferably, however, alarms and trouble-shootingactions are prioritized by logical importance in terms of theirrespective relationship to a most-likely root source of the conditionresulting in the alarm or trouble-shooting action. For example, if ameasurement anomaly is detected at multiple points during a high speedweb converting process, it may be preferable to prioritize any alarm ortrouble-shooting action in process order (i.e., the first detectionpoint being nearest a most-likely root source). Other logical priorityschemes may be advantageously employed with the benefit of the presentdisclosure.

[0264] Exemplary Displays

[0265] FIGS. 15-19A illustrate exemplary display information for displayon an operator interface associated with a manufacturing process. Theillustrated examples focus on manufacturing prefastened training pants,such as training pant 20 of FIGS. 1-3. FIG. 15 illustrates an exemplarydisplay screen based on the above-described Wonderware® Factory Suite™2000, available from Wonderware Corporation. As illustrated in FIG. 15,a display screen 2000 has been configured and arranged to correspond tofunctions associated with the manufacture of training pants 20.

[0266] Proceeding around the display screen 2000 in a generallyclockwise fashion, displayed there on are a plurality of options forenabling the operator to select the type of information for display. Afull product inspection (FPI) option is indicated at 2002. In theillustrated example, selecting the FPI option 2002 causes a display ofinspection data from a full product inspection machine vision system(e.g., system 1512 of FIG. 12). FIG. 19A illustrates an exemplarydisplay of full product inspection information of a fastening systemassociated with a refastenable child's training pants, as displayed onan operator interface. FIG. 19A provides an example of informationdisplayed in connection with FPI option 2002. The next option 2004enables a display of data relating to an applicator process, which willbe discussed below in connection with FIG. 20 and FIG. 21. Displayoption 2006 enables a display of PAC linescan measurements. In thepresent example, the PAC linescan inspection system (e.g., inspectionsystem 1502 of FIG. 12) includes a camera located at a position beforethe outer cover of the training pant 20 is applied, and can detectcomponent edges and placement that would be hidden or otherwise moredifficult to inspect by the placement of the outer cover. Option 2008enables a display of an inspection system for inspecting fasteningsystem 80 (e.g., inspection system 1520 of FIG. 12). Display option 2010enables a display of so-called “Insight” measurements. In particular,these measurements refer to measurements of a Cognex In-Sight® 3000vision system, but are intended to be exemplary of the other inspectionsystems associated with the overall information system. Display option2012 enables a display of “quick check” data. The quick check displayscreen is preferably configured to display certain critical values forthe product in question. In this case, the quick check display isconfigured to display measurements that trigger product culls. Alsodisplayed may be measurements that most often (e.g., typically based onexperience or data analysis) require operator adjustments. Stateddifferently, the quick check display provides a convenient display ofinformation that will often be of very high importance to an operator,such as information to help troubleshoot high cull occurrences.Advantageously, such a display screen saves time by reducing the numberof displays an operator needs to monitor (i.e., it displays informationthat may be available on other screens, in a single, highly organizedmanner).

[0267] Display option 2014 enables a display of troubleshootingrecommendations and/or actions. Display option 2016 enables a display ofprocess alarms and watch conditions. In FIG. 15, process alarm option2016 is enabled. Other display options include, for example, an option2018 to access a so-called PIPE database. In this example, the PIPEdatabase stores data relating to waste and delay.

[0268] Referring still to FIG. 15, in the illustrated embodiment,process alarms are grouped into two categories: process warnings 2020,and process watches 2022. In this example, process warnings areconsidered to have greater relevance to the operator than processwatches. Thus, it is appropriate to use colors to differentiate the twocategories (e.g., red for warnings and yellow for watches).

[0269]FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary display of information associatedwith the selection of the PAC linescan option 2006. In this example, thedata relates to a sample (batch) size of 50 inspected products. Theaverage and standard deviation of various measurements taken by the PAClinescan inspection system are displayed relative to a desired targetvalue. FIG. 17 illustrates an exemplary display of informationassociated with the selection of the quick check option 2012. FIG. 18illustrates an exemplary display of information associated with theselection of the fastening inspection system option 2008. FIG. 19illustrates an exemplary display of information associated with theselection of the Insight inspection option 2010. Tracking Per StationInformation On A Multiple Station Device Referring now to FIG. 20,illustrated therein is a schematic representation of a system (referredto generally by reference 2100) and method for tracking per stationmanufacturing information from a multiple station device. For example,commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,116 to Pohjola, discloses a multiplestation device for rotating and placing a strip of material on asubstrate so that the strip is “surfacely placed” generally flat with acontinuously moving surface.

[0270] It has been known in the prior art to track information from aplurality of manufacturing stations, each station performing a differentfunction in the manufacturing process. It has been generally unknown,however, to use machine vision systems and an information exchange totrack and relate per station information from a multiple station device(sometimes referred to herein as a multiple repeat application device)that performs the same function—e.g., a six station device that performsthe same function, sequentially using each of its six stations, on sixsequential products being manufactured.

[0271] One particular example of a multiple station device is a sidepanel applicator used in manufacturing a disposable absorbentundergarment. Even more particularly, a side panel applicator 2102 usestwelve pucks mounted on a six-repeat applicator (two pucks perapplicator station) to apply side panels to a product chassis, asgenerally described elsewhere herein. As also described herein, product(or process) attribute information, regarding each product beingproduced during a production run, is accumulated from various inspectionsystems (illustrated generally in FIG. 20 by reference 2104), includingthose illustrated elsewhere herein. This inspection data is availablevia network 1124 (e.g., a Reflective Memory network). The remainder ofthe discussion of FIG. 20 focuses primarily a discussion of particularexamples. It should be understood that this discussion is provided forexemplary purposes and should not be construed in a limiting sense.

[0272] As explained above, in the exemplary embodiment illustrated,applicator 2102 is a six station device for applying side panels to thetraining pants. As shown in FIG. 20, station 1 of applicator 2102applies a side panel for a first product A constructed during a portionof the production run. Station 2 of applicator 2102 applies a side panelto the next (second) product—product B—constructed during the productionrun. This process continues so that station 6 of applicator 2102 appliesa side panel to the sixth product constructed in the sequence—product F.The process thereafter continues such that station 1 of applicator 2102applies a side panel to the seventh product constructed in thesequence—product G. In other words, each product is identified by anidentifier, in this example an upper case letter indicating its positionin the manufacturing sequence and a number indicating which station ofapplicator 2102 applied the side panel to that product.

[0273] Inspection system 2104 images each product being produced (or asample set thereof) and determines, for example, a measurement of sidepanel skew. The inspection data is accumulated and stored in a series ofdata collection/summary buffers 2110, which can be incorporated intoinformation exchange 1110. As illustrated in the following TABLE 1, eachbuffer corresponds to a specific station of applicator 2102. TABLE 1Buffer 1 Buffer 2 Buffer 3 Buffer 4 Buffer 5 Buffer 6 (Station 1)(Station 2) (Station 3) (Station 4) (Station 5) (Station 6) A B C D E FG H I J K L M N

[0274] Advantageously, therefore, the information (in this caseinspection data) is now correlated to a particular station of themulti-station device 2102. Thus, problems (e.g., regarding quality,registration, and so on) can be pinpointed to an exact station. Forexample, information in each buffer can be displayed directly and/ormathematical manipulations of accumulations of such data can bedisplayed.

[0275] It is also contemplated that the same collected inspection datamay be used to draw different conclusions. For example, the sameinformation could be stored in buffers of different sizes to drawdifferent conclusions for alarming and/or troubleshooting. As a specificexample, the information from the side panel applicator system could besplit into two buffers and related to the two repeat cut-off that ispart of the applicator system. Alternatively or in addition, theinformation could be split into six buffers which would identifyproblems with a specific applicator station. Another example deals withthe absorbent pad. Looking at the data broken between two buffers, eachcould be used to identify a problem with the absorbent debulker (tworepeat), and eleven buffers could be used to identify a problem with thepad forming screens (eleven repeat).

[0276]FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary display of inspectioninformation, tracked on a per station basis, in connection with theexample illustrated in FIG. 20. In the example of FIG. 21, the followinginformation is displayed for a sample set of fifty products produced andinspected: (1) the drive side (DS) and operator side (OS) average sidepanel skew and skew variance, correlated by application station; (2) thedrive side and operator side average and standard deviation calculationsof measured panel placement in the machine direction relative to thepad, correlated by application station; and (3) the number of missingside panels (both drive side and operator side) detected during thesample set correlated by applicator station.

[0277] It should be understood that the per station information can alsobe stored in a database (indicated generally in FIG. 20 by reference2112) so that historical relationships can be developed. For example,relationships can be assessed between the per station information andwaste/delay data, raw material data, process setting data, and/orquality data.

[0278] The methods and systems disclosed herein for tracking per stationinformation are applicable to a wide range of multiple repeatapplication devices, apart from the above-described six station device.For example, a multiple repeat screen applicator (e.g., an eleven repeatdevice) can be used in a pad formation process associated withconstructing absorbent disposable articles (e.g., training pants). A tworepeat debulker device may also be used in the pad formation process. Ifper station information is tracked for both of these multiple repeatdevices—the eleven repeat screen applicator and the two repeatdebulker—problems identified by inspection system 2104 can becorrelated/isolated to the particular device and, preferably, to aparticular a station of the isolated device. For instance, if an anomalyis detected in the pad—using inspection system 2104—on one out of elevenproducts (e.g., every eleventh product produced during a productionrun), it is likely that the eleven repeat device is implicated. If,however, an anomaly is detected in every other pad, it is more likelythat the problem can be isolated to the debulker.

[0279] It should be appreciated that such isolation capabilities can beused in connection with the alarming and troubleshooting capabilitiesdiscussed elsewhere herein.

[0280] Another advantage of the methods and systems disclosed herein isthe ability to relate data from multiple systems. For example, ifinspection system 2104 comprises two or more inspection systems (such asthose identified in FIG. 12), comparing measurements from both systemshelps to better isolate problems. Referring to FIG. 12 as well as FIG.20, in one exemplary embodiment, a first machine vision system 1502comprises a Product Assembly Conveyor (“PAC”) linescan inspection systembecause it uses a vision camera mounted near the conveyor where theproduct is assembled. In this location, vision system 1502 is positionedto acquire images of each product being produced before the addition ofan outer cover assembly. Other vision systems (e.g., 1512 and 1520 inFIG. 12) are positioned at subsequent positions in the manufacturingprocess. Assume in this example that a position of absorbent assembly 44is stable when inspected by the PAC linescan vision system (e.g., system1502) but its position is not stable when inspected by a subsequentvision system. A processor (e.g., within information exchange 1110)having the inspection information regarding the position of theabsorbent assembly from the inspection systems can apply a logic filterand determine that because absorbent assembly 44 is stable at the PAClinescan system but not stable in subsequent inspections, the problemcausing the instability is not likely associated with formation ofabsorbent pad assembly 44 (which would be located upstream from the PAClinescan). Conversely, if absorbent assembly 44 is not stable at the PAClinescan inspection system, the logic filter preferably determines thatthe problem causing the instability is probably associated with theformation of absorbent assembly 44. Again, knowledge of such informationcan be used to provide, for example, alarms and troubleshootingindications to an operator. It can also be related to other data sources(e.g., raw material, productivity/waste/delay, quality, process setting,and so on) to identify relationships or potential relationships, such asdata patterns, between manufacturing problems and the other data. Thesepatterns may be identified by an information exchange, an operatorinterface or manually by an operator looking at a display of informationrelating to the patterns and performing calculations.

[0281] The ability to relate data from multiple systems (e.g., multipleinspection systems inspecting a product component from differentlocations in the production line) is especially powerful if a cameraassociated with a machine vision system is triggered off of a productcomponent. For example, if the component triggering the camera is whatis not stable (moving around), the image on the vision camera willappear stable-because it is triggered by the unstable component-andother components will look as if they are unstable. By using data frommultiple systems, a processor such as information exchange 1110 canisolate which component is unstable.

[0282] The system disclosed in FIG. 20 will now be described in terms ofanother operating example involving an information exchange, such asinformation exchange 1110 illustrated and described elsewhere herein. Amultiple repeat application device (e.g., applicator 2102) is configuredfor adding a component part to consecutive composite products (e.g.,refastenable training pants) constructed by the sequential addition ofvarious component parts. A machine vision system associated withinspection system 2104 preferably inspects substantially all compositeproducts produced during a production run (or a sample set thereof) toidentify one or more product (or process) attributes (e.g., side panelskew, absorbent assembly position, and so on) associated with eachinspected product in the sequence. Preferably, inspection system 2104determines a product (or process) attribute parameter corresponding tothe inspected product (or process) attribute and makes that product (orprocess) attribute parameter available over the communication network1124 (or otherwise). Information exchange 1110 collects product (orprocess) attribute parameters associated with the inspected products andbuffers those parameters, as illustrated in FIG. 20 and TABLE 1, so thatthe parameters are correlated by product and by station of the multiplerepeat device.

[0283] In one embodiment, information exchange 1110 accumulates samplesets of correlated product (or process) attribute parameters anddetermines a mathematical characteristic (e.g., an indication ofvariation, an average, and/or a standard deviation and so on) of eachaccumulated sample set. In a manner similar to that described elsewhereherein, the mathematical characteristic can be compared to a target(e.g., a limit or an ideal value or range of values) to determine if aproblem exists. For example, in some contexts a high standard deviationmay be indicative of a loose belt or a drive system problem.

[0284] Further, if information exchange 1110 determines that one of thesix applicators of applicator 2102 is misplacing a component, anindication (e.g., an alarm or troubleshooting action corresponding tothe applicator in question) can be displayed to an operator on operatorinterface 1118. Alternatively, information exchange 1110 can simply passinformation to another processor (e.g., operator interface 1118) whichcompares the data to a target and determines any display indications topresent on operator interface 1118.

[0285] In one embodiment, a data base system (e.g., data storage 2112)is configured for storing one or more types of data associated with themanufacturing process. Such manufacturing-related data types include,for example, quality characteristic data (e.g., derived from inspectionsystem 2104 and/or manually measured and entered data), raw materialcharacteristic data associated with the component part added byapplication device 2102, productivity data associated with a particularproduction run (e.g., waste and delay data associated with a workshift), and/or process setting data indicative of machine settings andset points associated with the manufacturing process (e.g., set pointsassociated with device 2102). Such data items of interest are preferablystored in data storage 2112 are logically related to the inspectionparameters provided by inspection system 2104. One way to provide such alogical relationship is to use a date/time stamp procedure. Another oradditional way to provide such a logical relationship is to use specificproduct codes. Other relationship tools are possible. Preferably,information exchange 1110 includes a logic filter for executing datamining functions within such data stored in data storage 2112 toidentify relationships such as data patterns between the inspectionparameters and the manufacturing-related data.

[0286] With the benefit of the present disclosure, it will be possibleto identify a number of data relationships of value to a variety ofmanufacturing processes such as high speed web converting processes. Forexample, storing per station inspection information can be stored forhistorical data tracking and reliability analyses, or for predictivemaintenance actions and the like.

[0287] Product, Process, and Material Data Mining

[0288]FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrative of one configuration of adatabase system (referred to generally in FIG. 22 by reference 2200)suitable for use in mining data in connection with an information systemsuch as that illustrated in FIG. 4A. As illustrated, the database systemincludes waste/delay/productivity data 1120, raw material data 1122,quality data 1112 (e.g., automatically determined and/or manuallymeasured data), and machine process data 1114. Each of these data typeshas been discussed and described elsewhere herein.Waste/delay/productivity data 1120 and raw material data 1122 areillustrated within a dashed box to reflect that, in one embodiment, suchdata is stored on a common computer system. It should be understood thatthe foregoing data may be stored separately or together. There arecertain advantages to storing such data in a common computer, includinga reduction in the overhead needed to access and transfer such data,which facilitates identifying relationships between the data.

[0289] As described above, a variety of product (or process) attributeinformation is gathered from machine sensors during the productmanufacturing process. Again, using the manufacture of refastenabletraining pants (which includes high speed web converting processes) asan example, product (or process) attribute information includes sidepanel cut length, side panel skew, hook machine direction (MD)placement, hook cross direction (CD) placement, fastener overlap,fastener skew, MD fold offset, front panel length, and back panellength. As explained herein, some or all of this information is madeavailable for display to an operator. Such product (or process)attribute information may also be stored for data mining or otheranalytical purposes. For example, such product (or process) attributeinformation can be stored in information exchange 1110 of FIG. 22. Theproduct (or process) attribute information is thereafter linked to oneor more other data sources of interest (e.g., one or more of datasources 1120, 1122, 1112, or 1114).

[0290] Advantageously, the foregoing data can be correlated to specificproducts or groups of products. Thus, it is possible to identifyrelationships that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. For example,assume that a particular product (or process) attribute isunsatisfactory for a group of products (perhaps even resulting in theculling of those products). Data mining techniques are used to determineif there is a correlation between the unsatisfactory products and theraw materials used or the process set points and so on. Similar, if aparticular production run resulted in an exceptionally high rate ofquality or productivity, it would be advantageous to identify anycorrelation to the raw material, set points, and so on. It should beunderstood that such data mining techniques include SQL queries used togenerate reports that are correlated in terms of time (e.g.,time-stamped data) and/or product. One or more logic filters can also berun on the data to further automate the data mining process.

[0291]FIG. 23 is a logic flow diagram of a method (indicated generallyby reference 2300) for correlating product (or process) attributeinformation with other manufacturing related information. Moreparticularly, at block 2302, an inspection system (such as inspectionsystem 1104 having one or more machine vision inspection devices)inspects one or more product (or process) attributes associated with acomposite product (e.g., a disposable absorbent article such as arefastenable child's training pant) being manufactured using a webconverting process during a production run. In one embodiment,substantially all products constructed during the production run areinspected. In other embodiments, inspecting includes inspecting a sampleset of products constructed during the production run.

[0292] At block 2304, product (or process) attribute parameters aredetermined for the inspected product (or process) attributes. In oneembodiment, the inspection system provides an indication of thereliability/trustworthiness of the product (or process) attributeparameter. For example, and as discussed elsewhere herein, some machinevision inspection systems provide an indication of an inspection failureassociated with the inspection system. Reliability/trustworthinessdeterminations can also be made by systems other than the inspectionsystem. For example, an information exchange associated with the methodcould identify data that is so grossly out of bounds as to beuntrustworthy.

[0293] At block 2306, the determined product (or process) attributeparameters are used to populate a product (or process) attributedatabase. In one embodiment, such a product (or process) attributedatabase comprises a part of information exchange 1110 (FIG. 22). Itshould be understood, however, that the product (or process) attributedatabase can be elsewhere, including, for example, a portion of qualitydatabase 1112 and so on.

[0294] Apart from (or in addition to) filtering product (or process)attribute parameters on the basis of reliability, one or moreembodiments can also correlate such parameters to whether the particularproduct being inspected was culled or not culled. For example, oneembodiment includes identifying two population sets within the product(or process) attribute database. A first population set comprisesproduct (or process) attribute parameters associated with non-culledproducts, and a second population set comprises product (or process)attribute parameters associated with culled products. It should now beappreciated that certain data mining activities may focus only on culledproducts or non-culled products. For example, it may be desirable toconduct data mining activities associated with non-culled products toidentify what factors tend to result in “good” production runs. Inanother embodiment, only data associated with non-culled products isstored in the product (or process) attribute database.

[0295] At block 2308, one or more manufacturing databases are populatedwith manufacturing parameters associated with the manufacture of thecomposite product. As described above, such manufacturing parametersinclude, for example, raw material data parameters (e.g., those storedin raw material database 1122), quality data parameters (e.g., thosemanually entered and those automatically added to quality database1112), waste/delay/productivity data parameters (e.g., those stored inwaste/delay/productivity database 1120), and/or machine process dataparameters (e.g., data stored in machine process database 1114).

[0296] In one embodiment, the data items of interest stored in themanufacturing databases include one or more identifiers for correlatingthe data stored therein with one or more product (or process) attributeparameters stored in the product (or process) attribute database. Forexample, a time-based identifier can be used to identify a time frame(e.g., a time of inspection or a time of manufacture) that may be usedto correlate data in the respective databases. Other examples ofidentifiers that may be used separately or in combination includeevent-based identifiers (e.g., a raw material change, a shift change, agrade change, and so on) and product-based identifiers (e.g., product orlot identifiers).

[0297] At block 2310, a logic filter correlates data stored in theproduct (or process) attribute database with data stored in amanufacturing database. As suggested above, such a logic filter mayinclude correlating the data of interest on the basis of a particulardata identifier. In one embodiment, SQL queries perform the logicfiltering functions.

[0298] At block 2312, the logical relationships are identified betweenthe correlated data. As explained herein, such relationships include,for example, relationships between product (or process) attributesdetermined by the inspection system and raw material attributes (e.g.,to identifying raw material contributions to good or bad product (orprocess) attributes). Other relationships include relationships betweenproduct (or process) attributes and process settings/set-ups (e.g., toidentify good run and bad run settings), relationships between product(or process) attributes and waste/delay/productivity results (e.g., toidentify whether a product (or process) attribute problems areresponsible for waste/delay/productivity issues), and relationshipsbetween product (or process) attributes and product quality. Further, inone embodiment, multiple inspection systems are used to identify theproduct (or process) attribute. In such an embodiment, relationshipsbetween product (or process) attribute information from differentinspection systems can be analyzed to identify additional relationships.Such relationships are useful for optimizing raw materials, productdesign, and improving manufacturing processes.

[0299] Further, logical relationships identified by the methodillustrated in FIG. 23 can be displayed on an operator associated withthe manufacturing production line, or can be determined later and usedas part of post-manufacturing data analyses.

[0300] It should now be appreciated that the systems and methodsdisclosed herein result in several distinct advantages over the priorart. For example, although camera inspection systems have been used inthe past, with the benefit of the present disclosure, it is now possibleto take measurement data from one or more systems and relate suchmeasurement data to other systems. Further, analyzing such relationshipsallows, among other things, improved process and quality control. Asexplained above, information from a raw material database can now beused to determine and anticipate material interactions to themanufacturing processes. Similarly, waste and delay data can be used toprovide automatic grade changes to the process settings. Further,inspection data can be used in connection with maintaining and improvingautomatic registration control-using a separate registration controlsystem and/or directly changing equipment set points. It is alsopossible to identify quality data for all products shipped, as opposedto determining quality only on the basis of a few samples.

[0301] It will be appreciated that details of the foregoing embodiments,given for purposes of illustration, are not to be construed as limitingthe scope of this invention. Although only a few exemplary embodimentsof this invention have been described in detail above, those skilled inthe art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible inthe exemplary embodiments without materially departing from the novelteachings and advantages of this invention. For example, featuresdescribed in relation to one embodiment may be incorporated into anyother embodiment of the invention. Accordingly, all such modificationsare intended to be included within the scope of this invention, which isdefined in the following claims and all equivalents thereto. Further, itis recognized that many embodiments may be conceived that do not achieveall of the advantages of some embodiments, particularly of the preferredembodiments, yet the absence of a particular advantage shall not beconstrued to necessarily mean that such an embodiment is outside thescope of the present invention.

[0302] When introducing elements of the present invention or thepreferred embodiment(s) thereof, the articles “a”, “an”, “the” and“said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements.The terms “comprising”, “including” and “having” are intended to beinclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than thelisted elements.

[0303] As various changes could be made in the above constructionswithout departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended thatall matter contained in the above description or shown in theaccompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in alimiting sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. An automatic troubleshooting system, suitable foruse in connection with a high speed web converting manufacturing processhaving at least one machine operating at a set point and producing acomposite article from a sequential addition of component parts during aproduction run of composite articles, said system comprising: acommunication network; a first inspection system automaticallyinspecting a first aspect of a composite article being produced duringthe production run, said first inspection system providing via thecommunication network a first inspection parameter indicative of acharacteristic of the first aspect; a second inspection systemautomatically inspecting a second aspect of said composite article, saidsecond inspection system providing a second inspection parameter via thecommunication network indicative of a characteristic of the secondaspect; and a logic system obtaining via the communication network aplurality of the first inspection parameters, each corresponding to oneof a plurality of composite articles produced during the production run,and obtaining a plurality of the second inspection parameters, eachcorresponding to one of said plurality of composite articles, said logicsystem determining a first mathematical characteristic associated withthe obtained plurality of first inspection parameters and a secondmathematical characteristic associated the obtained plurality of secondinspection parameters, said logic system determining a corrective actionin response to the first and second mathematical characteristics.
 2. Anautomatic troubleshooting system as set forth in claim 1 wherein saidfirst inspection system inspects the first aspect of substantially allcomposite articles produced during the production run, and said secondinspection system inspects the second aspect of substantially allcomposite articles produced during the production run.
 3. An automaticmachine troubleshooting system as set forth in claim 1 wherein saidfirst inspection system inspects the first aspect for a sample setcomprising less than all of the composite articles produced during theproduction run, and said second inspection system inspects the secondaspect of said sample set of composite articles.
 4. An automatic machinetroubleshooting system as set forth in claim 1 wherein the firstinspection system comprises a first detection system, and the firstinspected aspect of the composite article comprises a position of acomponent part of said article.
 5. An automatic troubleshooting systemas set forth in claim 4 wherein the second inspection system comprises asecond detection system positioned downstream from the first detectionsystem on the production line, and the second inspected aspect of thecomposite article comprises the position of the component part of saidarticle.
 6. An automatic troubleshooting system as set forth in claim 5wherein the second detection system comprises a machine vision systempositioned to inspect completed composite articles.
 7. An automatictroubleshooting system as set forth in claim 4 wherein the secondinspection system comprises a second detection system positionedadjacent the first detection system on the production line, and thesecond inspected aspect of the composite article comprises the positionof the component part of said article.
 8. An automatic troubleshootingsystem as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a machine controlsystem for controlling the machine in response to the set point, andwherein the logic system selectively provides a set point control signalfor use by the machine control system for adjusting the set point, saidlogic system providing the set point control signal as a function of thedetermined corrective action.
 9. An automatic troubleshooting system asset forth in claim 1 further comprising: a machine control system forcontrolling the at least one machine parameter in response to the setpoint; an operator display for displaying the determined correctiveaction; and wherein the determined corrective action comprises anindication of a change to the set point for use by an operator of themachine.
 10. An automatic troubleshooting system as set forth in claim 1wherein the logic system determines a first corrective action inresponse to the first mathematical characteristic and a secondcorrective action in response to the second mathematical characteristic,said logic system applying a logic filter to identify a priority asbetween the first and second corrective actions.
 11. An automatictroubleshooting system as set forth in claim 1 wherein the compositearticle comprises a disposable absorbent article.
 12. A method ofautomatically troubleshooting a machine, suitable for use in connectionwith a high speed web converting manufacturing process having at leastone machine operating at a set point and producing a composite productfrom a sequential addition of component parts during a production run ofcomposite products, said method comprising: inspecting a first aspect ofa composite product constructed using the high speed web convertingprocess and being produced during the production run; providing a firstinspection parameter being indicative of a characteristic of said firstaspect of said composite product; inspecting a second aspect of thecomposite product being produced during the production run; providing asecond inspection parameter being indicative of said second aspect ofsaid composite product; obtaining a plurality of the first inspectionparameters, each one of the obtained plurality of first inspectionparameters corresponding to one of a plurality of composite productsproduced during the production run; determining a first mathematicalcharacteristic associated with said obtained plurality of the firstinspection parameters; obtaining a plurality of the second inspectionparameters, each one of the obtained plurality of second inspectionparameters corresponding to one of a plurality of composite productsproduced during the production run; determining a second mathematicalcharacteristic associated with said obtained plurality of the secondinspection parameters; and determining a corrective action associatedwith the at least one machine in response to the determined first andsecond mathematical characteristics.
 13. A method as set forth in claim12 wherein inspecting the first aspect of a composite product beingproduced during the production run comprises inspecting a sample setcomprising less than all composite products produced during theproduction run, and wherein inspecting the second aspect comprisesinspecting said sample set.
 14. A method as set forth in claim 13further comprising selecting the sample set to correspond to a samplingplan.
 15. A method as set forth in claim 12 wherein inspecting the firstaspect of the composite product being produced during the production runcomprises detecting a position of a component part of the compositeproduct.
 16. A method as set forth in claim 15 wherein inspecting thesecond aspect of the composite product being produced during theproduction run comprises inspecting the composite product with a machinevision inspection system positioned to detect the position of thecomponent part.
 17. A method as set forth in claim 12 further comprisingselectively adjusting the set point of the at least one machine as afunction of the determined corrective action.
 18. A method as set forthin claim 12 further comprising displaying to an operator the determinedcorrective action.
 19. A method as set forth in claim 18 whereindisplaying to the operator the determined corrective action comprisesdisplaying a recommended amount of adjustment to be applied to the setpoint of the machine.
 20. A method for providing a troubleshootingresponse for a manufacturing process, said method being suitable for usein connection with a web converting manufacturing process producing acomposite product from a sequential addition of component parts during aproduction run of composite products, said method comprising:automatically inspecting at a first aspect of a composite product beingproduced during the production run to determine a component attribute ofsaid first aspect; automatically determining a machine setting of amachine associated with the web converting process at the first time;identifying a relationship between the component attribute of the firstaspect and the machine setting; and identifying a troubleshooting actionbased on the identified relationship between the component attribute ofthe first aspect and the machine setting.
 21. A method as set forth inclaim 20 further comprising storing the determined component attributein a database and wherein identifying the relationship between thecomponent attribute of the first aspect and the machine settingcomprises a non-real time identification process.
 22. A method as setforth in claim 20 wherein identifying the relationship between thecomponent attribute of the first aspect and the machine settingcomprises a substantially real time identification process.
 23. A methodas set forth in claim 20 further comprising automatically determininganother machine setting of the machine associated with the webconverting process and identifying a relationship between the componentattribute of the first aspect and the other determined machine setting.24. A method as set forth in claim 20 further comprising automaticallydetermining a machine setting of another machine associated with the webconverting process and identifying a relationship between the componentattribute of the first aspect and the machine setting of the othermachine.
 25. A method as set forth in claim 20 further comprisingautomatically inspecting a second aspect of the composite product todetermine a component attribute of the second aspect and identifying arelationship between the component attribute of the second aspect andthe machine setting.
 26. A method as set forth in claim 20 furthercomprising: automatically inspecting a second aspect of the compositeproduct to determine a component attribute of the second aspect;automatically determining another machine setting of the machineassociated with the web converting process; and identifying arelationship between the component attribute of the second aspect andthe other determined machine setting.
 27. A method as set forth in claim20 further comprising: automatically inspecting a second aspect of thecomposite product to determine a component attribute of the secondaspect; automatically determining a machine setting of another machineassociated with the web converting process; and identifying arelationship between the component attribute of the second aspect andthe machine setting of the other machine.
 28. A method as set forth inclaim 20 wherein identifying the troubleshooting action comprisesdisplaying a troubleshooting action on an operator display.
 29. A methodas set forth in claim 20 wherein the machine setting comprises anautomatically adjustable set point and wherein identifying thetroubleshooting action comprises adjusting the set point.